


White Rose

by RavenTempestShadowhunter



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Elementary School, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Middle School, Bullying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Mental Breakdown, Mental Institutions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-07
Updated: 2015-07-12
Packaged: 2018-02-12 03:39:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 32,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2094303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RavenTempestShadowhunter/pseuds/RavenTempestShadowhunter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nico di Angelo is new to America and to kindergarten. He meets a new friend on the playground named Thalia Grace. But when he introduces her to Bianca, he realizes that no one else can see her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Innocent

**Author's Note:**

> Another story transferred from fanfiction.net. I'll update pretty frequently.
> 
> I don't own Wake Me Up When September Ends by Green Day. Karen Edgerly, Mr. Pickering, Bryce and Matthew are all original characters.

_Summer has come and passed  
The innocent can never last  
Wake me up when September ends  
_ _Ring out the bells again  
_ _Like we did when spring began  
_ _Wake me up when September ends  
_ – Wake Me Up When September Ends _, Green Day_

The autumn air was cold, and Nico could almost smell snow in the air. He pulled his jacket closer and tucked his nose in against the wind. He hated winter. Even at five years old people made fun of him for being “emo”, though he didn't think they really knew what it meant. Hell,  _he_ didn't know what it meant. And Bianca wouldn't explain it to him, she just assured him that he wasn't. And that was good enough for him. His sister was always right.

But despite people insisting that he was “emo”, and picking at the long sleeves he wore, he really didn't like long sleeves. He liked to be able to run around outside in his t-shirt (but still in jeans, he'd never liked shorts), and winter made that difficult.

Also, it made his knuckles stiff, and that made it difficult to play his game. And no matter what they said, Mythomagic  _wasn't_ a baby's game. He wasn't a baby. He was five.

Bianca said it was okay to still be a baby sometimes, though, so he supposed it was. Just not at school.

He'd been so excited to go to school. He was smarter than a lot of his classmates, he'd already been able to read when he started kindergarten that year. He loved reading, especially about the monsters and gods he already knew about from his game. That was how he'd learned, actually. He'd gotten tired of needing Bianca to read him the cards, and decided that either he'd have to memorize each card based on its picture, or he'd have to learn to read.

He'd ended up memorizing the cards anyway, but that was beside the point. And his teacher, Ms. Karen, had been very impressed.

Ms. Karen was the nicest lady Nico had ever met, even if Karen wasn't really her last name. He'd overheard the principal talking to Ms. Karen. He didn't know what they'd been talking about, but the principal, a big, beefy, red-faced man name Mr. Pickering, call Ms. Karen  _Mrs. Edgerly._ But Nico didn't like that name, it wasn't nice enough for Ms. Karen, so he never called her by it. Ms. Karen had black hair and smiling eyes, as Bianca liked to call them.

Nico blew on his hands to try to warm them. He glanced across the playground. A fifth grader named Bryce was shaking another kid upside-down for his lunch money. Nico remembered his first day, the one he'd been so excited about. Until Bryce had put him in the exact same position that this poor boy, who Nico now identified as Mathew from the first grade, was in. Nico had learned to bring a lunch to school a few days in.

He didn't like school anymore. The other kids didn't like him because he was different. He had moved to America just three months before, and although his English was very good due to Mythomagic and the American television that Bianca loved so much, his accent still left something to be desired. Sometimes his classmates would give him words to say. One of their favorite things to do (when they were in a good mood) was try to teach him to speak without the accent. They especially liked giving him words that began with “h”, because he always dropped it. He hated it. Or rather, 'ated it.

“Hey,” Nico heard, and looked up to see Bryce standing in front of him flanked by two cronies (cronies had been Bianca's favorite word for weeks after she'd heard it in a television show). “Still playing that baby's game?” Bryce asked, smirking. His cronies chuckled.

“No babies,” Nico muttered, looking back down at the figurines spread across the cold ground.

“I'm talking, idiot,” Bryce snapped. He knelt down and grabbed the collar of Nico's jacket. “Do you understand my words?” he asked slowly, mockingly.

Nico didn't answer, and the crony on the left went behind him and shoved him. “Answer.”

Nico glanced back up at Bryce. “I ahnderstand,” he said.

Bryce laughed, letting go of Nico's collar. “ _Ah nderstand_ ,” he said, trying and failing to imitate Nico's pronounciation. He shoved Nico back and Nico fell, sprawling on the ground. Bryce picked up one of the figurines. “Who's this?” he asked with a sneer.

Nico sat back up. “At'ena.”

Bryce snorted and threw the figurine at Nico. It hit Nico's jacket. “That's so stupid.”

“Is no stupid,” Nico muttered, picking up the figurine. He leaned forward to pick up the others, but Bryce grabbed his hand.

“Learn how to speak English,” Bryce said. He squeezed Nico's wrist and bent it backwards.

It wasn't the first time Bryce had done this, and Nico knew how it would end if he didn't react. The first time he'd tried to pretend it didn't hurt (even though it did, Bryce was strong) and had ended up having to wear gloves until the bruising went away. He didn't tell Bianca or his father, they had too much to worry about already. And the teachers wouldn't care. Bryce had told him so.

He whimpered an “ow” and tried to pull his hand away. Bryce and his cronies laughed and Bryce let go. He stood up and led his cronies away from Nico, probably to terrorize other small children.

Sitting there, holding his wrist and hoping that it didn't bruise, Nico wished that they had never left Italy. Not for the first time either. He sniffed and wiped away the tears forming in his eyes. The one good thing about winter was that he could pass off tears as his eyes watering from the cold.

“Hey,” came a voice above him. He looked up. Standing there was a girl about his age. She had black hair and electric blue eyes. The combination was almost terrifying. “Are you okay?” the girl asked.

Nico nodded furiously and began picking up his Mythomagic.

“I'm Thalia,” the girl said, sitting down in front of him. She picked up one of his cards.

He snatched it out of her hand. “No touching,” he snapped.

“Sorry.” Thalia looked down at the other cards and figurines. “What is this?”

“Noting.”

Thalia raised an eyebrow. For a five year old, she was very good at it. “Okay, then.” Then she cocked her head and frowned. “How come you talk funny?”

“I am not America.”

She giggled. “Ameri _can_ , silly.”

“American.”

“I wasn't making fun of you,” Thalia said. “Where are you from?”

He glanced up at her. She really wasn't making fun of him. “Italy.”

Thalia's face lit up. “Oh, that's so cool! How do you say  _hello_ in Italian?”

Nico stared at her. Was this girl serious? “ _Salve_ ,” he responded. “ _Ciao_ , to friends.”

“What?”

He sighed and sat back. “You haveh  _hello_ , yes?” She nodded. “You haveh  _hi_ to friends, yes?”

“Oh,” Thalia said, drawing out the word. “So  _salve_ is like  _hello_ and  _ciao_ is like  _hi_ ?”

Nico nodded, and could help the small smile that crossed his face.

“So really, what are you playing?”

He looked down at the figurines and cards, now stacked in neat piles. “Myt'omagic,” he responded, looking back up at her.

“What is it?”

“It is gameh for god and monster. Of Greek.”

Thalia nodded. “I don't know what that means,” she said, laughing.

Nico reached forward and picked up a card. “Manticoreh,” he said, handing it to her. “Put down.” He motioned for her to place it on the ground. When she had done so, he picked up another card and put it down opposite the Manticore card. “Apollo.” He pointed to points on the cards. “You win.”

Thalia looked at both of the places where he was pointing. “Because Manticore has a bigger number.”

He nodded. “Attack,” he said, pointing at the number of Attack Points on the Manticore card. “Defenseh,” the number of Defense points on the Apollo card. “I first, Attack,” the Attack points on the Apollo card, “Defenseh,” the Defense points on the Manticore card.

Thalia looked up at him and grinned. “I get it. So if I win, what do I get?”

Nico searched through his pile of figurines until he found the one he wanted. He held it and the Apollo card up. “Apollo.”

“That's really cool! Okay, let's play.”

Nico grinned and dealt the cards, five to each of them.

By the time Ms. Karen started calling for their class to go in, Thalia had started getting better and had beaten Nico twice out of the five games they'd played. “That's really fun,” she said as she helped Nico pick up the cards.

Nico smiled and nodded. “Yes, fun.” He put the cards and figurines in their boxes and tucked them all into his bag. Swinging the bag over his shoulder he began to walk back to the school.

“Wait,” Thalia called, and he turned around. “I don't know your name.”

“Nico.”

Thalia grinned. “ _Ciao_ , Nico,” she said, waving.

“Ciao, bella,” Nico responded. Thalia laughed, giving him a look that showed she didn't know what that meant, and that she didn't particularly care. He waved back and Thalia turned to go back to the playground. Within a few seconds she'd gotten lost in the crowd.

Nico walked back into the classroom smiling.

* * *

“Bianca!” Nico called as he opened the door to their small apartment. He dropped his bag on the floor, keeping a hold of the smaller one with his Mythomagic in it, and ran into the kitchen. Bianca went to a different school than he did, and her's got out earlier, so she'd already gotten home.

She was in the kitchen eating a snack. His father was washing dishes in the sink. Nico had forgotten that it was Wednesday, his father took the night shift on Wednesdays.

“Ciao, Arachidi,” his father said, drying his hands on a dish towel. “How was school?” he asked in Italian.

Nico wrinkled his nose at the nickname. It meant “peanut”. He had never been able to figure out why his father called him that. He only knew it was something that his mother had called him.

“Good,” he responded. He climbed up on a stool and placed his Mythomagic bag on the floor next to him. His father put a plate with a chocolate chip cookie and a glass of milk in front of him. Chocolate chip cookies were the only things that his father could cook. “I made a new friend!” Nico said, dipping his cookie into his milk.

Hades chuckled. “Really? What's your friend's name?”

“Thalia. I taught her how to play Mythomagic! She's really fun.”

“Do you have a crush on her?” Bianca teased.

Nico wrinkled his nose. “Ew, no. Yuck. She's just my friend.”

Hades laughed again and went back to the dishes. “You should invite her over.”

Nico's face brightened. “Okay! You'll really like her.”

“I'm sure,” his father responded. “But first you should do your homework.” He looked up at Bianca. “Both of you.”

“I'm not the one who never does his homework,” Bianca said, looking at her little brother.

Nico groaned. “It's stupid.”

Hades chuckled. “Homework in kindergarten  _ is _ stupid, but you still have to do it.”

Nico huffed, jumped off the stool, and walked into the hall to get his bag.

When he picked up the bag, he winced. His right wrist still hurt from Bryce bending it. It was bruised, too. That would be fun to have to explain to his father.

But slinging his bag over his shoulder, he thought of Thalia. For the first time since the first day of school, he was excited to go back.

 

 


	2. Never Never Land

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own Storytime by Nightwish.

_I am the voice of Never, Never Land **  
**The innocence, the dreams of every man **  
**I am the empty crib of Peter Pan, **  
**A soaring kite against the blue, blue sky, **  
**Every chimney, every moonlit sight **  
**I am the story that will read you real, **  
**Every memory that you hold dear  
_ – Storytime __, Nightwish

“Ha!” Thalia exclaimed, pointing at Nico. “I get your Demeter!”

Nico muttered something in Italian and glared at her before grudgingly handing her the statue. Thalia had gotten remarkably good at Mythomagic over the past two weeks. She understood tactics and how to read her opponent, and now she could beat him five times out of ten. Nico blamed it on the fact that he still had trouble reading English, ignoring the fact that he could recite the Attack points on every card in his sleep (and according to Bianca, he had)

He still hadn't asked her to come over yet. He wanted to, he really did, but he felt like there was some reason why he shouldn't. Maybe it was the fact that their apartment was still strewn with boxes and loose items, and it wasn't a particularly attractive place to begin with. Maybe it was the fact that none of his family spoke English fluently, and his father was the only one who could have a real conversation. Nico got along pretty well, and Bianca was picking it up fast. But none of them were perfect.

But he felt like it was something else. For some reason he just knew that bringing Thalia to his apartment would be a bad idea.

But he pushed away the bad feeling and smiled a smile that only a five year old could pull off. “You comeh to househ, yes?”

Thalia laughed. “What house?” She loved his accent. She didn't make fun of him, but she loved to hear him talk, so he didn't get angry when she laughed.

“Me. Me 'ouseh.”

“ _My_ ,” she corrected. That was another reason why he didn't get angry: she was helping him improve.

“My 'ouseh. You comeh, yes?”

She giggled again. “When? Today?”

Nico nodded. “Papa say you comeh.”

“Okay,” Thalia agreed, smiling. “What's your Papa's name?”

“'Ades.”

“Ades? That's a weird name.”

Nico shook his head. He cursed his grandparents for giving his father such a difficult name. And it wasn't really, it was just that he couldn't say the h sound, and it drove him mad.

“ _H_ ades,” he said, breathing out on the h. He'd learned it was the best way to make the sound.

“Oh, Hades.”

Nico nodded. “Hades.”

Thalia laughed again. “No, you had it right before. How come you can't even say your own dad's name?”

He huffed and looked back down at his cards. “What your Papa name?”

Thalia blinked and a shadow passed over her face that made her look much older than she was. “I don't have one.”

“You no 'aveh Papa?”

She shook her head. “No, he went away.”

“You 'aveh Mama?”

A look of fear crossed Thalia's face, but Nico didn't notice it. “Of course,” she answered. “I have a Mama.”

“What your Mama nameh?”

“Lillian,” she answered softly.

Nico had noticed that Thalia had a tendency to do this. For a few seconds she sounded older, not  _old_ old, but older than five. She would talk about things like her family, or something completely random even, and it would seem to remind her of something. Like something from a past life. But then she would smile and be the normal five year old girl that Nico knew, and he wouldn't comment. Half the time he thought he imagined it.

“Lillian is good,” Nico said, trying lighten the mood.

Thalia looked up at him and smiled, and again he thought he'd imagined the moment of sadness. “What about your Mama? What's her name?”

He shook his head. “No. My Mama…” he trailed off, searching for the right word. “La mia mamma è morta.”

“I don't know what that means.”

“Morta,” he repeated, growing frustrated. “No Mama. Morta.”

Thalia stared at him. Times like these were rare, but they happened.

Nico put his hands on his face and sighed harshly. “Goneh. No comeh back.”

“Like, she left?”

“No,” Nico sighed. “No left. Goneh. Goneh goneh.”

Thalia cocked her head. “Dead gone?”

He shrugged. “Morta.”

“Dead.”

“Dead.”

“Sorry.”

Nico nodded. “T'ank you for sorry.”

Thalia giggled. “You're welcome.”

“You comeh today? Yes?”

She nodded. “Yes. Now let me kick your butt again.”

“Kick my butt?” he repeated slowly

Thalia sighed. “Beat you. In Mythomagic. Come on, let's play.”

* * *

“Bianca!” Nico called when he opened the door and entered the apartment, Thalia trailing at his heels.

“In the kitchen!” she called back in Italian.

Thalia tapped Nico on the shoulder. “What'd she say?”

Nico didn't answer, just waved her along behind him with his hand. When they entered the kitchen, Bianca was sitting at the counter reading a book. She looked up when they entered. “Hey,” she said, smiling. “How was school?”

Nico grinned. “This is Thalia.” He pointed to his new friend. “She doesn't speak Italian.” He turned to Thalia. “Bianca,” he said, in English now, and gestured. “My sister.”

Bianca's eyes searched the area he'd been pointing at. “Um, Nico?”

“What?”

“There's no one there.”

Nico scrunched his face up in a frown. “What? She's right here.”

Thalia looked very uncomfortable. She opened her mouth to say something, but Bianca cut her off.

“It's okay to have imaginary friends, just make sure you tell people they're imaginary. If you don't they'll think you're crazy.”

“But…” Nico began, but stopped and shook his head. His sister was messing with him. “Sorry, I should have told you.” He wasn't about to let her get the best of him. He turned to Thalia. “Comeh. My room, I see.”

She shook her head. “No, _I_ see. You show.”

“I show,” he corrected. “Bianca, can Thalia stay for dinner?” he asked in Italian.

His sister nodded, and he took his friend's hand and led her to his room.

She was just messing with him. Thalia was right there. He could see her. He hadn't made her up.

Nico chuckled to himself at his sister's silliness and took out his special collector's edition Mythomagic cards to show Thalia.

 


	3. Angels Have Faith

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own A Demon's Fate by Within Temptation.

_Angels have faith **  
**I don't want to be a part of his sin **  
**I don't want to get lost in his world **  
**I'm not playing this game  
_ – A Demon's Fate, _Within Temptation_

Bianca sat on a bench, watching her younger brother. They were at Central Park. Nico was playing Mythomagic under a tree, laughing at something his imaginary friend had said. He had asked Bianca if Thalia could come with them, and Bianca had told him that she could. At the time she hadn't thought it strange, but now she wondered why he would bother asking? It wasn't as if she would have a problem with him bringing someone who didn't exist.

Sometimes she wondered whether or not Nico really realized that Thalia didn't exist. Bianca had never had any imaginary friends herself. She didn't know what it was like. Honestly, she thought it was sort of ridiculous. Talking to air, as if it could talk back to you.

But it seemed to for Nico. She'd heard him having conversations with Thalia, in his room or even in the car when their father was driving them to the park. Somehow he'd come up with the idea that Bianca's English wasn't good enough to have a conversation with Thalia, so he translated everything Thalia said into Italian, and everything Bianca said into English.

And that was another thing. His English was improving. Nico was a fast learner, and he was very smart, but she hadn't thought he'd get so good at English so quickly. Sometimes when he was talking to Thalia he'd correct himself, but it was like someone had corrected him first and he was just repeating what they'd said.

But that was ridiculous. Bianca shook her head and chuckled at herself. Thalia didn't exist. She couldn't correct him, any more than she could play Mythomagic with him.

Bianca was a very pretty girl, and mature for seven. She spoke better English than her brother, although not quite as good as her father. She'd started taking English class in first grade, so she'd already had a year of it before they'd come to America. She was as intelligent as her brother, but much better at making friends. She was also bigger. Bianca had her mother's warm brown eyes and dark hair, but her father's height. Nico had their father's obsidian eyes and hair, but he was very small, like their mother had been.

“Watcha thinking about?” Bianca looked up and smiled to see her friend Zoe standing in front of her. She stood up.

Zoe Nightshade was thin as a twig and taller than Bianca, which was saying something. She was strong, especially for a seven-year-old. Bianca had no doubt that she'd be able to pick Nico up and swing him around above her head. She had long jet black hair that she always kept in a braid. She did archery, although Bianca had never seen her shoot. Her eyes were like stone. Hades had once said that he dreaded the day Zoe entered high school. Bianca didn't quite understand what her father had meant, but Zoe was terrifying at seven.

Zoe also almost never smiled. Hades thought she would make a good guard at the Tower of London. When he'd explained to Bianca that the guards were famous for never moving and had shown Bianca a picture, Bianca agreed, but said that Zoe would look terrible with one of the hats the guards wore.

The two girls had become friends the second day of second grade, when Bianca had spilled chocolate milk in Zoe's lap. She'd apologized profusely and offered (well, tried to offer) to buy Zoe a new shirt, but Zoe hadn't understood a word Bianca was saying (Bianca had a tendency to speak in Italian without realizing it when she got flustered) and had taken Bianca's tray out of her hands and set it down on the table next to Zoe. By the end of lunch the girls were inseparable.

Bianca just shook her head in answer to Zoe's question. “Come on, let's go climb!” Zoe exclaimed, leading her friend to the Alice in Wonderland statue just a few yards from where Bianca had been sitting. They loved to climb on it. Bianca liked to play it safe and go no further than the highest mushroom, or possibly Alice's lap. But Zoe would climb to sit on top of Alice's shoulders and sometimes even her head, being the daredevil that she was. Admittedly Alice's shoulders weren't much higher than the mushroom, seeing as she was sitting on it, but Bianca thought it was impressive. She didn't think she'd ever be able to climb that high.

“Who's your brother talking to?” Zoe asked as she sat on top of Alice's left shoulder and watched Nico placing a card on the ground in front of him and chatting with no one.

Bianca shrugged. “Nico 'as friend. Not real friend. Likeh…” she searched for the right word. “Likeh ghost,” she finished.

Zoe looked down at her friend. “An imaginary friend? He made it up?” Bianca nodded. “Oh. That's cool.”

“'er nameh is Thalia.”

“My mom used to read me stories about these goddesses. One of them was named Thalia. I didn't like her. She was the goddess of funny things or something. 'Cept she was the goddess of funny things in, like, stories and stuff. 'Cause they were all story goddesses. I think. It was kinda confusing.”

Bianca laughed. She hadn't quite understood what Zoe had said, Zoe sometimes spoke too fast for Bianca to follow. But she laughed anyway.

“'e play gameh with Thalia. Myt'omagic.”

“That weird card game with the dolls?”

Bianca nodded.

Zoe gave a disapproving snort. She thought Mythomagic was a stupid game, though she'd never say so to Nico. Not twice, anyway. She'd done it once before, and he'd sworn at her so colorfully in Italian that his father had to put a hand over Nico's mouth and carry him off to his room.

Dropping the subject, Zoe reached down to tug on the shoulder of her friend's shirt. “Come on, come up!”

Bianca shook her head. “No.”

Zoe sighed in her seven-year-old way, leaning her head back and catching herself on Alice's head when she almost fell over. “Chicken,” she muttered.

“Not chicken,” Bianca protested.

“Yes chicken! Come and sit with me!”

But Bianca folded her arms, closed her eyes, and shook her head. Zoe humphed, but slid down Alice to sit on her other knee next to Bianca.

Opening her eyes and unfolding her arms, Bianca smiled at her friend. “Iceh cream?” she asked.

Zoe grinned and nodded. The two girls jumped off of Alice and ran over to where Hades was sitting on a bench reading his book. “Papa, can we get ice cream?” Bianca asked in Italian, bouncing on her toes.

Hades glance up, then marked his page and put the book away. “Ice cream, huh?” he asked, grinning at his daughter.

Bianca nodded excitedly. “Please, Papa!” she begged. Zoe folded her hands and gave Hades her best puppy dog eyes.

Hades stroked his imaginary beard, thinking. “You know,” he began, “I saw a coffee shop not too far from here that sells gelato.”

Bianca gasped and brought her hands to her mouth. “Like from home?”

Her father nodded. “Let's go there!” Bianca cried. She turned to her friend. “You know gelato?” she asked.

Zoe's face lit up and she nodded. “Gelato's better than ice cream. 'Cept my mom never buys it 'cause it's too 'spensive.”

Hades laughed. “We will buy it,” he said in heavily accented English. “Nico!” he called across the park. Nico's head jerked up from the cards on the ground and looked at his father, who waved him over.

Nico looked at the air just in front of him and said something that none of them could hear, then gathered up his cards and ran across the park, laughing. When he came to a stop in front of them, he gasped, “I win.” He paused, then said, “No! I win!” to the air next to him.

“Bot' win,” Hades said. “Do you want to get gelato?” he asked Nico in Italian, leaning forward on the bench and resting his elbows on his knees.

Nico's smile stretched across his face and he nodded so hard Bianca thought his head would fall off. “For Thalia also?” he asked. Bianca frowned. He was speaking English again.

But Hades just laughed and stood up. He took Nico's hand in his own (Nico still wasn't used to the big roads; Marino, where they were from, didn't have roads like New York did) and led them away. Bianca and Zoe trailed behind.

To Nico's right, Bianca thought she saw a flash of blue. Her breath caught in her throat for a second. Nico had said that Thalia's eyes were blue.

Then she shook her head and almost laughed out loud. No one had eyes _that_ color blue. No one had eyes that looked like the sky had been electrocuted.

It was just her imagination. Thalia didn't exist.


	4. Shield You From the World

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own Forgiven by Within Temptation. Marino, Willrun Middle School and Miss Greene are all original.

_Oh, for so long I've tried to shield you from the world_ _**  
** _ _Oh, you couldn't face the freedom on your own_ _**  
** _ _And here I am left in silence_

– Forgiven, _Within Temptation_

_**Five Years Later** _

“Ciao Bianca!” Nico said as he entered the kitchen. Bianca looked up from the essay she was writing on the family laptop and smiled.

“How was school?” she asked in Italian.

Nico was practically vibrating. “We started learning Greek mythology!” he replied in English.

Bianca's smile faded. Nico only spoke in English to her when Thalia was around. Over the past few years Nico's English had gotten better. He still had a faint accent, and it got stronger when he got upset or excited, and he was a bit formal, but he was just about fluent.

“We're gonna go to my room. When's Papa getting home?” Nico continued, still in English.

Bianca turned back to the laptop. “He said he'd be home for dinner,” she responded. She refused to speak English just for Nico's imaginary friend.

Nico frowned at his sister's sudden change of attitude, but shrugged it off a moment later. He was sure that he would never understand girls. “Okay.” He turned and walked down the hall to his room with Thalia behind him.

Percy was lying on the bed when Nico opened the door. Annabeth sat on the windowsill looking slightly guilty. “I tried to tell him to wait outside, but he wouldn't listen,” she apologized.

“Your sister scares me,” Percy said, turning his head to look at Nico and Thalia.

Nico dropped his bag next to the bed. “You know she cannot see you, yes?” he asked.

“That's the problem,” Annabeth sighed. She hopped off the windowsill and stood in front of it with her arms crossed.

Percy shuddered. “One time we were waiting for you, and Bianca came along and _walked through me_. I _hate_ it when people do that.”

“At least Bianca tastes good,” Thalia remarked, still standing next to Nico.

Over the past few years Nico had come to realize that no one else could see his friends. It had started to become apparent when Bianca hadn't given up the idea that Thalia was an imaginary friend. Nico had realized that Bianca hadn't been messing with him. But it wasn't completely confirmed until one day when they were six. They were walking through Central Park and someone had walked straight through Thalia. She'd begun coughing and complaining that the man tasted like cigarettes.

Being six, Nico hadn't really thought much of it. He was the only one who could see Thalia, and later Percy and Annabeth, but he knew they weren't imaginary. They were real people, they just weren't the same as him or Bianca or Hades.

He didn't talk about them much, but he did speak English for them. He hated the idea that they might feel left out. He hadn't made any other friends, either. He knew that Bianca and his father worried about him, but he couldn't bring himself to leave the friends that he already had, who'd been with him for so long, even if they were different.

And they were so interesting. They could taste people. It had taken Nico a while to understand it, but after a few years he'd figured it out. Now they even had a game – Nico would guess what a person would taste like and Thalia or Percy or Annabeth would tell him if he was right. Some people were easy; smokers tasted like cigarettes, artists tasted like paint, athletes were salty. Some didn't make sense at all; business men and women were lemony, but not always sour. And some people were just random; Nico's teacher at school tasted like grapes, the owner of their apartment building was minty, and the girl who played the flute in the park tasted like dirty socks.

Thalia insisted that each person's taste told something about them, but Nico didn't quite believe her. He didn't see how knowing that someone tasted like dirty socks helped to know anything, except maybe that she had terrible foot hygiene.

They said that Bianca tasted like vanilla. Nico thought that if Bianca was vanilla then he would be chocolate, because they seemed to be opposites in everything else, but Thalia said he was more like mild cinnamon mixed with something creamy. Which was ironic, because he was allergic to cinnamon.

But the sensation of having someone walk through you wasn't particularly comfortable, according to Nico's friends, and he believe them. He'd walked through Percy once, and it was awful. Like he was choking on fog. He'd almost asked if they were ghosts, but decided that that was ridiculous. They could pick things up, they could touch things. Ghosts couldn't touch things. And he decided it might be rude to ask if they were dead. He didn't want to offend them.

Actually, he wasn't quite sure if it would offend them. Especially Thalia. She wasn't the kind of person who got offended easily, or did _anything_ easily. One time he'd asked her to get him a pencil from his desk so he could do his homework, and she done it by crawling across his bed and jumping across to the chair in front of his desk. Which had tipped over, causing her to narrowly miss hitting her head on the bed post, but she still hadn't touched the floor. He wasn't quite sure how she managed it, but one second she was falling and the next she was balancing on the overturned chair with his pencil in her hand.

But he didn't ask anyway, one because he didn't want to risk it and two because he didn't really care. They were his friends, and that was that. If other people didn't like it, well, they could just leave him alone.

Thalia had been around since he was five, and Percy and Annabeth had showed up the next year, a few weeks after the incident with the man at the park who tasted like cigarettes. They were a good group, they worked well with Nico. They were all very different, but like Nico's teacher liked to say, opposites attract. He still wasn't quite sure what that meant, but it sounded good.

Percy had black hair that always looked as if he'd just gotten out of bed, no matter what he did to it. His eyes were the color of the ocean. When he was angry they were a dark green, like a storm at sea, and when he was happy they were tinted gold, like the sun shining on the waves. Nico had lived in a small town called Marino before he'd moved to America, and Marino was near the ocean. He'd loved it there. They'd gone back a few times, and Thalia, Percy, and Annabeth had all come with them. Percy had spent most of his time sitting on the porch, staring out at the ocean. They'd gone swimming, too, and Percy was the best swimmer Nico had ever met.

Sometimes Percy got that sad look in his eyes, the same one that Thalia got, when he was near the water. Nico had never asked about it. All three of them got it, actually. Nico thought it had something to do with their families, which they never talked about.

Percy was the one who Nico did all of his boy things with. They played catch and messed around outside. Nico didn't really like those things very much, but he'd do them every once in a while. Percy didn't like to sit still for too long. He was always pacing or playing with things on Nico's desk. If he had to sit down for too long Nico would swear he would start to vibrate.

Annabeth had curly golden hair and gray eyes. She was incredibly smart. Sometimes she could be terrifying, but usually she was very nice. She was the one who Nico asked for help from on homework. She was the one who would stay up with him for hours studying if he needed it, long after Bianca had gone to bed. Nico hated school with a passion, which his father said was silly because he was only in fifth grade, and which Annabeth said was silly because it was just school. But she made it fun for him with games and rewards.

Thalia understood. That was what she did. She understood. She was the one who understood everything that he needed her to. She was his brick wall. He leaned on her when he needed support and talked to her when he was feeling stressed. Percy and Annabeth were his friends, but they'd never be what Thalia was to him.

Nico sat down beside his bag on the bed and pulled out his homework folder. “I have two math sheets and a map for color,” he announced.

“To color,” Annabeth corrected.

Percy groaned. He hated school even more that Nico did, which Nico thought was funny, because as far as Nico knew none of his friends went to school.

“Can we at least have a snack before we start talking about homework?” Percy begged.

Annabeth sighed and rolled her eyes, and Thalia chuckled. “I'll go get something. Just finish that, we have a Mythomagic battle to finish,” she said to Nico, then opened the door and left.

Yes, he still played.

* * *

Bianca leaned back in her chair and sighed as she clicked print. She wasn't nearly as bad at school as her brother, and she didn't hate it as much as he did, but she couldn't stand English claser father told her it was just because it wasn't her first language. But in reality it was because her teacher always wanted her to find a deeper meaning. She didn't know why someone couldn't write a book for the sake of writing a book. Why did always have to be “dealing with deeper issues” or “sending a message”?

She took her papers from the printer and leaned down to staple them. She turned around to face the kitchen when she heard a noise. It sounded like the refrigerator door closing. But there was no one there.

Bianca sighed and placed the stapled papers next to the laptop on the counter. Nico would tell her it was one of his friends. She'd heard the noises before: doors closing, footsteps, sometimes even people talking. For a while she'd been convinced the house was haunted. But that was ridiculous. Ghosts didn't exist. She wasn't a kid, she didn't believe in fairy tales or ghost stories.

She poured herself a glass of water and thought about the flash of electric blue she'd seen five years ago at the park. She'd never seen it again, she hadn't seen anything. It had just been her imagination. She was sure of it.

But Nico still talked about his friends. There were more of them now. A boy named Percy and a girl named Annabeth. They seemed so real to him.

Their father still humored him. Hades still pretended to believe in Nico's friends. He would invite them to dinner and remind Nico that they couldn't stay over because it was a school night. Like they were real people.

She shook her head and put her empty glass in the sink. Nico needed help, and Hades wasn't about to get it for him. It was up to her.

* * *

Bianca took a deep breath and knocked on the wooden door in front of her. A few moments later a woman with soft-looking dark brown hair and warm hazel eyes and a smile that stretched across her face opened the door. “Hi,” the woman said.

“Hello,” Bianca said, swallowing hard. “Are you Miss Greene?”

The woman nodded. “Do you want to come in?” she asked, the smile still on her face. She stepped back to let Bianca through.

Bianca stood in the middle of the room twisting her fingers. “You won't tell anyone I'm here, right?” she asked. She'd only met the guidance counselor a few times, and it was mostly in class. In sixth grade Miss Greene had come to their classroom every week to give classes about drugs and alcohol and how to say no. Some people would go to Miss Greene's room once a week to have lunch, but it was usually just the kids who needed it, the ones who caused trouble or who got bullied and things like that.

Miss Greene shook her head, sitting down at her desk and offering Bianca a seat on the couch, which she declined. “Not unless it's something that could hurt you.”

“It's not,” Bianca promised. “It's about my brother. His name is Nico.”

The guidance counselor nodded and smiled again. “I've met him. He's very energetic, isn't he?” She laughed. Nico had started at Willrun Middle School that year. Willrun went from fifth grade through eighth grade. Bianca thought the name was ironic, since their track team sucked.

Bianca grinned. “Yeah. But he…” she paused. She didn't want to make Nico sound crazy. He wasn't really crazy. He just needed help.

“He what?” Miss Greene prompted.

“He talks to people who aren't there.” Biana sighed. That made him sound crazy. “We thought they were imaginary friends. But he still has them.”

Miss Greene chuckled. “Nico is ten, right?” Bianca nodded. “He's at a transitioning age. He's not a little kid anymore, but he's not a teenager yet. It's not uncommon for ten year olds to have imaginary friends.”

Bianca shook her head. “He believes they are real. He thinks they are real people. Like, at home, we speak Italian to each other. But when his friends are around, Nico speaks English. If they were imaginary, wouldn't they speak Italian? If they're from his mind?”

“Not necessarily.”

“Miss Greene, he really thinks that these people exist. I can't explain, but I know he thinks they're real.”

Miss Greene sighed. “Alright, why don't I talk to him, okay?”

Bianca nodded. “Okay. Thank you.”

Miss Greene stood up and smiled again. “You go to class. And thank you for coming to me.” She walked to the door and held it open for Bianca.

Bianca thanked her and left.

She would see. She would understand. She had to. Nico needed someone. He wasn't listening to Bianca, and Hades wasn't either. But he would get better now. He could make real friends.

Bianca hugged her books tighter to her chest and walked up the stairs to her first class.

 


	5. Who We Are

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own Paradise (What About Us) by Within Temptation ft. Tarja. Miss Greene is an original character.

_What about us? Isn't it enough?  
_ _No, we're not in paradise  
_ _This is who we are, this is what we've got  
_ _No, it's not our paradise  
_ _But it's all we want and it's all that we're fighting for  
_ _Though it's not paradise  
_ – Paradise (What About Us) _, Within Temptation ft. Tarja_

“Mr. Cole?” came a crackly voice from above their heads.

Mr. Cole turned from the white board where he'd been drawing a circle cut into sections (they were studying fractions) and called, “Yes?” to the ceiling.

The intercom came again, “Is Nico di Angelo with you?”

 _No, absolutely not_ , Nico thought. _Really, he's not. I promise._ The last time the intercom lady had asked for him his father had been waiting to take him to a surprise cavity filling.

“Yes he is,” Mr. Cole answered, and Nico dropped his head onto the desk. “Should I send him down?”

“To Miss Greene's office, please.”

Nico picked his head up, his face red. Everyone turned to stare at him. Getting called unexpectedly to the office was bad, getting called to the principal was worse, but getting called to the guidance counselor's was _social suicide_.

Well, maybe social manslaughter, since Nico wasn't the one calling himself. But either way, Nico was the tiny little Italian boy who still played little kid's card games and never spoke to anyone…he didn't have much left to lose. What was one call to the guidance counselor's?

Nico dragged himself out of his chair, out the door, and down the hallway to Miss Greene's office.

“Hi, Nico,” Miss Greene said with a smile when he walked in, despite the fact that he'd forgotten to knock. “Sit down.”

She gestured to the couch and Nico sat, folding his legs underneath him and putting his hands in his lap.

“So, your sister came to see me this morning,” Miss Greene began. The smile was still on her lips, and Nico found it annoying.

“Oh.”

“She says you have some friends that only you can see.”

He stared at her, blinking. Why would Bianca go to a guidance counselor for that? He wasn't crazy. They were real.

“Can you tell me about them?”

“They're real,” he offered. “I'm not crazy. They're real.”

Miss Greene's face still held the smile. “What are their names?”

“Thalia and Percy and Annabeth.”

“Are they here now?”

He shook his head. “They don't come to school. They don't like school. Well, Annabeth does, but she doesn't like _school_ school. Just the work. She helps me.”

“With your work?”

Nico nodded.

“What about Thalia? Does she help you?”

He cocked his head, thinking. “Yes. But she's a friend-helper. Not a school-helper. She talks.”

“And that helps you.”

Another nod.

“Does Percy help with anything?”

Nico grinned. “He plays catch with me. And he teached me how to swim.”

“Taught,” a voice from the corner supplied, and Nico glanced behind Miss Greene to see Annabeth standing next to the door.

“Taught,” Nico repeated.

Miss Greene turned around to see where Nico was looking, then turned back to him. “Is someone there?”

He nodded. “Annabeth.”

“She corrects you?”

“Yes. They help me learn English. I speak Italian.”

“I know. When did you meet your friends?”

He shrugged. “Thalia was a few years ago. And Percy and Annabeth were about a year after her.”

Miss Greene leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees. “Do you have any other friends, Nico? Other than Thalia and Percy and Annabeth?”

Nico shook his head. “I don't need them.”

“But don't you think it would be good to meet new people?”

“No,” Nico answered. He didn't like this. No one had ever talked to him about his friends before. He glanced up at Annabeth nervously and saw her smile at him. He smiled back. “People are mean. I don't like them.”

“Are they mean to you?”

He shrugged. “Not anymore.”

Miss Greene stared at him for a few minutes. Finally she asked, “And Thalia and Percy and Annabeth, would you call them imaginary?”

Nico laughed, and after a few seconds Annabeth laughed with him. It sounded forced, but Nico didn't notice. He shook his head. “No. Bianca think they are imaginary…”

“Thinks,” came from the corner.

“Bianca _thinks_ they are imaginary, and Papa. But they are real. You cannot see them. But they are real.”

“So why can't I see them?”

He cocked his head, then after a minute he shrugged. “I don't know.” He glanced up at Annabeth.

“We don't want them to,” she supplied.

“Annabeth says they don't want you to,” Nico explained to Miss Greene.

“Is she still here?” Miss Greene asked, glancing behind her as if she half expected to see something.

Nico nodded.

“Why do you think she came to school with you today? If she usually doesn’t?”

Nico glanced up at Annabeth, hoping for an answer. But she just stared back at him, her eyes darting to the guidance counselor every now and then as if she was nervous.

He looked back at Miss Greene and opened his mouth to say something, when a voice from his left said, “Don’t answer.”

He turned to his left to see Thalia sitting next to him. This was getting weird. They’d come to school before, when he needed help or had been lonely, but as far as he could remember they had never come together. It had always only been one of them. And he didn’t need help now, he could handle talking to a guidance counselor.

“Don’t say anything, Nico,” Thalia ordered, and Nico nodded.

“She’ll get suspicious if he doesn’t,” Annabeth argued.

“Nico?” Miss Greene said, but Nico ignored her, too busy watching his two friends.

Thalia stood up. “She’ll get suspicious if he does,” she countered.

“She’ll think he’s crazy.”

“She’ll think he’s crazy no matter what he says.”

“Thanks,” Nico grumbled, but both Thalia and Annabeth ignored him, although Miss Greene continued trying to get his attention.

“If he’s careful she won’t suspect anything.”

Thalia stepped forward. “He’s too young, Annabeth,” she said, quietly enough so that Nico couldn’t hear her. “He’ll blow it. We have to wait.” She turned around to face Nico. “Don’t say anything,” she ordered again. “Just tell her you want to go back to class.”

Nico blinked a few times. Thalia was very rarely harsh with him, and this didn’t seem like something to get harsh about. But he trusted her. So he turned back to Miss Greene and asked, “Can I go back to class now?”

“I’d like to talk to you for a few more minutes. Could you ask your friends to leave for a little?” Miss Greene said. She was clearly shaken, but she hid it beneath years of practiced professionalism.

“Not on your life,” Thalia growled.

“Shush, Thalia,” Nico said. “Just go. I’ll be good, I promise. I won’t say anything you don’t want me to.”

Annabeth took Thalia’s arm and very nearly dragged her out of the guidance counselor’s office.

“They’re gone,” Nico announced as soon as the door had shut behind them. He’d never understood why no one else ever heard the doors opening and closing, or the footsteps going down the hall, but he’d learned to brush it off.

Miss Greene smiled. “Okay. Do your friends ever tell you to do things?”

Nico frowned. What did that have to do with anything? “Well, yes. Percy tells me to get things, and Annabeth tells me not to use my calculator on my math homework. Even though it’s hard, and I don’t remember my multiplicates.”

“Your multiplication?”

He’d forgotten how difficult it was to remember the right words when Annabeth wasn’t there to help him. “Yes,” he said.

“Was Thalia telling you to do something?”

“Yes, she said...” he trailed off. What if this was something he shouldn’t say? “Nothing,” he finished. “She said nothing.”

Miss Greene stared at him for a few seconds, then leaned back in her chair. “Okay, Nico,” she said, that smile back on her face. “Do you want me to walk you back to class, or can you manage it by yourself?”

* * *

“Don’t worry,” Thalia said. She wrapped her arm around his shoulders and gave him a slight squeeze, like she did when he’d had a nightmare. “It’ll be okay.”

“Yeah, that guidance counselor lady’s just bein’ nosy,” Percy added. He was sitting in Nico’s desk chair with his legs stretched out and crossed in front of him.

“But why does she want to know about you?” Nico asked.

Thalia rolled her eyes. “Like Percy said, she’s just being nosy. She’ll get over soon, and everything will go back to normal. Besides,” she continued, giving him another squeeze. “You believe we’re real, right?”

“Of course.”

“So anything she says shouldn’t matter anyway.”

“Right.” Nico nodded. “It doesn’t matter anyway.”


	6. Reality's Maze

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own The Escapist by Nightwish. Richard and Dr. Nancy Wright are both original characters.

_A nightingale in a golden cage  
_ _That's me locked inside reality's maze  
_ _Come someone make my heavy heart light  
_ _Come undone, bring me back to life  
_ _It all starts with a lullaby  
_ – Escapist, _Nightwish_

“Papa, I don't want to talk to her,” Nico whined as he tried to pull his hand out of his father's grip.

Hades sighed. He didn't want Nico to talk to the psychiatrist either. But the guidance counselor had suggested it. Apparently his son might have some sort of mental illness. Hades prayed to whoever was listening that Nico would be alright, but for the time being he needed to get Nico into the room.

He turned and knelt down to his son's level. For a ten year old, Nico was very small, less than 4 feet. “Nico, Arachidi,” he began, holding his son's arms. “I know you don't want to. But the guidance counselor said that you have to. I'll be right outside the whole time, I promise.”

“But I don't like doctors,” Nico whimpered.

It was times like these when Hades wished his wife was still alive. Then again, Maria would never let Nico be sent to a psychiatrist.

“She's not like the doctors you've seen before. She's…a talking doctor. She just wants to talk to you, okay?”

Nico bit his lip and nodded.

Hades smiled. “Good. And after this, we can go to the cafe to get gelato. Just answer all of her questions as truthfully as possible. Promise?”

Nico nodded again. “I want cherry,” he said, smiling.

Hades laughed and ruffled Nico's hair. “Okay.”

“Niccolo di Angelo?” came the call from the doorway, and they both looked up to see a man wearing a pair of blue jeans and a shirt with Captain America's shield on it. The man saw them looking up and smiled at them.

“Go ahead, Arachidi,” Hades said softly.

Biting his lip, Nico let go of his father's hands and walked towards the man at the door.

“Hi, Niccolo,” said the nurse. “I'm Richard, I'm going to take you in to see Dr. Wright, okay?”

“Nico,” Nico said softly.

“Sorry,” Richard said, chuckling. He turned and led Nico down the hall to a door with _Dr. Nancy Wright_ written on a plaque. Richard knocked twice and opened the door without waiting for an answer. While Richard stepped into the room, Nico stood in the doorway, holding his left wrist in his right hand.

“Niccolo di Angelo is here for you, Doc,” Richard said.

From behind Richard, Nico saw the top of a brown head of hair. The doctor stepped to her left and smiled at Nico. She looked up at Richard and said, “Thanks, Richard.”

Richard nodded and left the room, patting Nico on the shoulder as he passed.

“Hi, Niccolo,” Dr. Wright said.

“Nico.”

Dr. Wright chuckled. “Why don't you come in? Come on, sit down.” She waved him in and gestured to the couch. Did every psychiatrist and psychologist and guidance counselor have a couch in their room? And did all the couches have to be so ugly?

Nico took a seat on the couch and Dr. Wright sat in the chair across from him. Nico crossed his legs on the couch and gripped his left wrist again.

“So, Nico, do you know why you're here?”

Nico nodded. “Miss Greene thinks I'm crazy because I have friends that you can't see.”

“But you can see them?”

He nodded again.

“So why do you think we can't?”

Nico sighed. This was just like with the guidance counselor. Except this time, Thalia and Annabeth weren't here. “They don't want you to.” That's what Annabeth had said, wasn't it?

“Do you know why they don't want me to?”

“I never asked. We don't talk about stuff like that.”

“So what do you talk about?”

Nico paused. “Normal stuff,” he answered after a moment. “Like school and games. Percy plays with me. And Annabeth helps with homework.”

“Are those the only two?”

“No. Thalia, too.”

“Does she help?”

“She talks.”

“Are any of them here?”

Nico glanced around, then shook his head.

Dr. Wright leaned forward, clasping her hands in front of her. “Nico,” she began, “do your friends ever tell you to do things?”

He nodded. “They told me not to talk about them,” he answered, crossing his arms in what he hoped looked like a defiant pose.

“Why, do you think?”

Nico blinked. “Well…they didn't say.” He narrowed his eyes. “But I trust them. They said no talking.”

Dr. Wright leaned back and lifted her hands in surrender. “Okay.” She opened the folder on her lap. “Why don't you tell me about school?”

Nico uncrossed his arms and shrugged. “I don't know. It's school.”

“Do you like it?”

He considered the question, then shrugged again. “It's just school.”

“Do you ever have any problems with anyone.”

“Like bullying? No.”

“What about when your friends first came? Were you bullied then?”

Nico hesitated, but nodded. “Yeah. There was a fifth grader. He teased me. About my game. He said it was a baby game.”

“Did your friends help you?”

“Thalia played with me!” he answered, grinning. “She played Mythomagic with me.”

The doctor smiled as if he was a child, but Nico didn't comment.

“Nico,” Dr. Wright started, then hesitated. “Sometimes kids your age create friends because they're lonely.”

Nico bit his lip but didn't say anything. He hadn't made them up. It wasn't his fault that no one else could see them. He didn't know why, he supposed they just didn't like being seen. But they were _real_.

“And sometimes it's because they want to…protect themselves.” She cleared her throat. “What does your father do for punishments? Like if you break a rule?”

Nico blinked. What did that have to do with anything? “Um…he asks me what I did wrong. And then he, um, sends me to my room, or takes away something.”

“Does he ever hurt you?”

He cocked his head. “Sometimes if I'm rude to him he spanks me. Or sometimes hits my head. Right here.” He pointed to the back of his head.

“And what about your mother?”

“She died.”

Dr. Wright nodded. “I know. Do you miss her?”

Well of course he missed her. She was his mother. Even if he didn't really remember her very well. “Yes.”

“What about your father? Does he miss her too?”

“Yes. And Bianca miss her, too.”

The doctor didn't correct him, and he was about to correct himself when she started talking again.

“Do your friends, Thalia, Percy and Annabeth, do they look anything like your mother?”

Nico blinked at her. Why would his friends look like his dead mother? “No. Bianca does.”

Dr. Wright smiled and stood up. “Thanks for talking to me, Nico. Come on.” She led him out the door and into the waiting room.

When Hades saw them, he stood up and walked over. “You areh finished?”

Dr. Wright smiled at him. “Actually, Mr. di Angelo, I'd like to talk to you, if that's alright?”

Hades looked down at his son, then back up at the doctor, and nodded. “Of courseh,” he said. “Nico, go sit down. I'll be out in a minute,” he told his son in Italian.

Nico nodded and went to sit down in the chairs while Hades followed Dr. Wright to her office.

“Please have a seat,” Dr. Wright said as she shut the door.

“Is Nico okay?” Hades asked, a worried expression on his face.

Dr. Wright sat down across from him. “Nico believes that these people who he talks to are real.” She lay her clipboard down on her lap and looked him in the eye. “Now, there are a few things that could be causing his hallucinations. Some children create people without realizing it to deal with stress. Moving to a new country can be very stressful, especially to someone so young. Losing his mother is also stressful, and growing up without a mother figure. The way Nico has described his 'friends', they take care of him. They help with his homework, they play with him. He may have created them to be the mother he doesn't have. Or mothers, in his case.”

“'ow can I 'elp?” Hades asked.

“There's another reason for childhood hallucinations, Mr. di Angelo,” Dr. Wright said, ignoring his question. “Nico mentioned that you sometimes spank or hit him.”

Hades nodded. “Yes. You call it, uh, corporeal punishment.”

“I hope you understand the difference between _corporal_ punishment and child abuse, Mr. di Angelo.”

Hades' face changed into an expression of disbelief and anger. “I never 'urt Nico if 'e do not deserveh it,” he said vehemently, his accent growing stronger. “I tell 'im what 'e do wrong.”

“Alright,” Dr. Wright said, raising her hand to placate Hades. “I'm sorry, Mr. di Angelo, I have to do what's best for Nico. And that means exploring every possibility. But I don't believe that leaving him in his current situation will harm him.” She picked up her clipboard and flipped a few pages. “Nico was three when his mother died, right?”

“Yes,” Hades answered. He was still upset over the doctor's accusation.

“It's unlikely that he remembers her enough for it to be the cause of his hallucinations. I believe that he has created his 'friends' to take his mother's place.” She pulled out a pen and a piece of paper. “This is the number of a child psychologist, he's very good. And I suggest you try to be there for you son, do what his friends do. Help him, play with him, let him talk to you. The friends might go away if they aren't needed.”

Hades nodded. “Tank you,” he said, standing up and taking the piece of paper. “Good byeh.”

“Good bye, Mr. di Angelo,” Dr. Wright answered with a smile. “And good luck. You have a wonderful son.”

When he'd put his hand on the doorknob, Hades stopped and turned around. “Dr. Wright.”

“Yes?”

“You believeh in ghosts?”

Dr. Wright blinked. “Mr. di Angelo, the people Nico sees are not ghosts. They are hallucinations that his mind has created to help him cope with some kind of undetermined stress.”

“I believeh in ghosts,” was all Hades said as he opened the door and left the doctor's office.

* * *

“He should have been back by now,” Thalia said. She was pacing back and forth across the room.

From the bed, Annabeth sighed. “Calm down, Thalia. He'll be fine.”

“Yeah, they probably stopped for lunch,” Percy added. He was lying next to Annabeth.

Thalia stopped pacing and looked at them. “We shouldn't have let him go. We should have fought his father.”

“Thalia,” Percy sighed. “We knew this was going to happen. It happens every time. There'll be therapy sessions, and then everything will get bad, and then it'll be okay again. God,” he laughed, “remember that girl in, what was it, Los Angeles? The one who got locked up before things got better?”

Thalia shook her head. “That wasn't our fault. She was crazy anyway. We probably made it worse.”

“Yeah, and things didn't get better for her,” Annabeth added. “She killed herself, remember?”

Percy huffed. “That's not how I remember. The point is,” he sat up, “this isn't the worse one we've had.”

“Why are you so worked up anyway?” Annabeth asked. “You never get this agitated. What's so different this time.”

Avoiding eye contact, Thalia answered, “It's just different.”

“It's Nico, isn't it?” Percy said. “He's more important than the others.”

Thalia turned to glare at him. “He is no different. No more important. He is…he is young.”

Annabeth shook her head. “No. You always start talking like that when you're lying.”

Thalia didn't answer, just resumed her pacing.

Percy settled back on the bed and lay an arm over his eyes. “Wake me up when he gets here, will you?”

 


	7. Burn All of the Photographs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Miss Greene and Dr. Nancy Wright are original characters.

_Seems that she disappeared without a trace_ _ **  
**_ _Did she ever marry old what's his face?_ _ **  
**_ _I made a point to burn all of the photographs_ _ **  
**_ _She went away and then I took a different path_ _ **  
**_ _I remember the face but I can't recall the name_ _ **  
**_ _Now I wonder how whatsername has been  
_ – Whatsername _, Green Day_

“I didn't like her,” Nico said as he climbed into the car.

Hades smiled. “I know,” he answered in Italian. “But it was good for us to go.”

Nico shrugged and stared out the window as Hades started the car.

“Gelato?” Hades asked, trying to change the subject. He didn't like talking about Nico's friends.

Nico looked back at him and grinned. For a moment Hades was reminded of the boy his son used to be, before he'd met Thalia, before they'd left Italy. They never should have left Italy.

As Nico began chatting about what flavor he wanted and what he was going to put on it, Hades realized that Nico still was that little boy. There was nothing wrong with his son, and there never had been. Nico was normal, in fact he was even more normal than Bianca had been. At ten, Bianca would have rather stayed in her room reading. She'd been solemn and serious, much more mature than other children her age. Nico liked to play games, he liked to talk, he was energetic and lively. He didn't like spending time with other people, but he was fine with playing by himself.

Except he wasn't playing by himself. But how could such a normal, happy little boy have something so terribly wrong with him?

There was another answer.

Hades believed in ghosts. He'd felt his wife's spirit more than once. And he believed that some people could talk to the dead. Maybe his son was one of them.

But there had never been anybody named Thalia or Percy or Annabeth who lived in their apartment, or in any of the apartments in their building. Hades had checked. And ghosts didn't grow or change. Nico had made it clear that his “friends” had grown from five- and six-year-olds to ten-year-olds.

His next thought was demons. Hades had been raised by a devoutly religious mother. As they pulled up in front of the little gelato shop that they both loved and went inside to order, he considered this idea. Demons were evil. The people Nico talked to were nice. They helped him.

But some demons were also tricky. They deceived people. They played games with the mind. Making friends with a small child was exactly something that they would like to do. Once they had the child's trust, they would destroy his life, torment him, until finally he had to be locked away in a mental hospital until he died.

“Papa, I want chocolate,” Nico said, taking Hades' hand in his own small one, and Hades smiled and nodded.

Hades trusted doctors. He understood that some people saw things that really weren't there. They had problems that could be fixed with therapy. But he knew his son. And while Nico was different from other children his age, he wasn't crazy. Whoever, _whatever_ these people were, they weren't natural, but they were real. And they wanted to hurt his little boy.

There were ways to get rid of demons, he knew. It wasn't easy. It was better done by a priest. But Hades didn't know any priests, it had been so long since he'd gone to church. God, church. He should have gone. Maybe if Nico had been raised more Catholic they wouldn't be in this mess.

Hades closed his eyes and mentally shook his head. It didn't matter now, they couldn't change it. He didn't know any priests, so he'd have to do it himself.

“Come on, Nico,” he said, interrupting the story his son was telling him about some boy in his class who had eaten an entire cake in one sitting. He stood up. “We can finish in the car. Bianca's waiting.”

Nico was his son. It was up to him to protect his family.

* * *

“Hey, little man, how'd the doctor's go?” Percy asked when Nico walked in.

“What did he ask?” Thalia growled. She was standing next to the window with her arms crossed and a scowl on her face.

Nico shrugged and sat down on the bed with Percy. “It was a she,” he told Thalia, “and she asked the same things that Miss Green did.”

“What did you say?” Thalia uncrossed her arms and stepped closer.

“Thalia,” Annabeth said, her tone harsh, from the desk chair. “Shush! Don't worry, Nico. It doesn't matter what you told her.” She glared at Thalia as if daring her to comment. Thalia didn't.

“I didn't say anything bad,” Nico promised. “She asked a lot about school and Mama and Papa. Not as much about you.”

Thalia eyed him warily for a few seconds. Then she sighed and her face relaxed. “I'm sorry,” she said, looking at the ground. “I trust you. I know you didn't say anything bad.”

Nico smiled up at her. “Don't worry, Thalia. You told me not to say anything. I won't.”

* * *

It was nearly midnight. It had to be done at midnight. The witching hour. Hades' mother hadn't told him much about these things, but he knew that the most powerful spells (he'd been told never to call them magic – they were God's work) had to be done at midnight.

Hades took a breath and turned the knob on Nico's door. The door squeaked when he opened it, but Nico had always been a sound sleeper. Thunderstorms couldn't wake him up. A squeaky door certainly wouldn't.

Shutting the door behind him, Hades stepped towards the bed. He set the jar he was holding on Nico's bedside table. From his right pocket he pulled an iron cross on a black cord. From his left he pulled a silver pin. He put the cross next to the jar on the table. With the pin he pricked his finger, wincing slightly. He leaned over his son. “Gloria in Excelsis Deo,” he whispered, drawing a cross in his blood on Nico's forehead. “Psallite Domino qui fertis super caelum caeli ad Orientum.”

Nico shifted slightly and hummed in his sleep.

Around Hades the air seemed to move, as if someone or something had suddenly appeared. But the room still looked empty. It grew somehow darker, and the temperature dropped.

Glancing around nervously, Hades picked up the jar from the table and took off the top. He took a pinch of the gray ashes inside and began sprinkling them in a circle around himself. “Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus, omnis satanica porestas, omnis malum est.”

A breeze ruffled Hades' hair. He looked around. The windows were all closed. The lights from the city streets were hidden beneath a veil of darkness and Hades shivered from the sudden cold. He took a deep breath and continued sprinkling the ashes. “Ego praecipio tibi, in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sanctus…” the breeze turned into a wind, with papers drifting across the floor and books rustling on the shelves, “…cessa decipere humanas creaturas.”

Hades picked up the iron cross and held it in front of him, “Invocato a nobis sancto et terribili nomine…” Nico began to whimper and trash in his sleep. The wind picked up and books began flying off shelves, but nothing hit Hades within the ash circle. The whimpers turned into sobs and cries, “…quem inferi tremunt.”

Around him, Hades saw flashes of shadowy people. They moved at a dizzying speed, shapes of people, sometimes young children, sometimes older, teenagers maybe. Smoky features, pale faces and dark clothes. Only their eyes were clear, and they were the most terrifying things Hades had ever seen. Three sets, one the color of an electric sky, one like molten silver, and one a stormy sea. “Abi daemon!” he finished.

For a moment the wind continued, the people flashing around faster and faster until they were just streaks of smoky beings and bright, terrifying eyes. Suddenly Nico's mouth opened in a scream that didn't seem to come from him, but from the three figures in the room. Nico's back arched as the screams continued. Hades dug his fingernails into his hand to keep himself from reaching out to touch his son, to comfort him. It would all be ruined if he left the circle.

For what seemed like an eternity the screams continued, Nico writhing on the bed, until all of it – the screams, the wind, the darkness, the cold – just stopped. The light came back, the temperature rose, the books and papers fell in piles around the room. Nico lay back on his bed, fast asleep, the red cross still painted on his olive forehead.

Hades let out a breath of air. Crossing himself and looking up at the ceiling he whispered, “Benedictus Deus. Gloria Patri.”

Then he rubbed away the blood cross from his son's forehead with a few drops of water from the glass on Nico's bedside table. He smoothed Nico's hair back, kissed him, and left the room.

Now Nico would be safe.

* * *

“Hi, Niccolo,” the man in the wheelchair said when Nico had shut the door behind him. “I'm Dr. Brunner, but you can call me Chiron.”

“Nico,” Nico muttered, sitting on the couch (again with the couches) and looking down at his hands.

“Sorry, Nico,” Chiron corrected himself. “So, do you know why you're here?”

Nico nodded. “Dr. Wright thinks I need it 'cause I have friends you can't see.”

“Well, that's part of it. Can you tell me about your friends?”

Nico looked up at the doctor. He was a nice looking man with brown hair and brown eyes and a red plaid blanket covering his legs in the chair. He was thin, but not skeletal.

“They're gone.”

Chiron blinked. “Gone?” he asked.

Nico nodded. “The day after I went to see Dr. Wright. I woke up and they were gone.”


	8. Fairytale of Lies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own Faster by Within Temptation.

_I can’t live in a fairytale of lies. **  
**And I can’t hide from the feeling cause it’s right. **  
**And I go faster and faster and faster and faster for love. **  
**And I can’t live in a fairytale of lies.  
_ – Faster _, Within Temptation_

_**Five Years Later** _

“Niccolo!” Hades called from the kitchen. “You're going to be late!”

A few minutes later he heard a thumping sound from Nico's room and a string of muffled swears. “Niccolo!” Hades shouted again. “Language!”

“If you have to swear, do it in Italian!' Bianca added in Italian as she walked into the kitchen. She dropped her school bag on one of the stools and picked up one of the bagels their father had set out.

Hades cleared his throat and raised an eyebrow at her. “Or don't do it at all,” she said, but not loud enough for Nico to hear.

Nico came through the door. “I fell over,” he said in Italian.

“Doing what?” Bianca asked through a mouthful of bagel.

“Putting my pants on.”

Bianca snorted and Hades shot her a look. At seventeen, Bianca was tall and thin. She had thick black hair that fell nearly all the way down her back. She was gorgeous, and it hadn't gone unnoticed by the boys in her class. But neither had her tall, imposing father with the black flashing eyes, so she'd been mostly left alone.

Nico was still as small as he'd ever been. He barely reached Bianca's shoulder. His hair was thin and black and fell in his equally black eyes. Inexplicably, at least to Bianca, Nico never noticed any of the girls staring at him. Or the boys, because there were a few of those, too. But Nico had never shown any interest in anyone, even as friends. After Thalia, Percy, and Annabeth had disappeared, Nico had started shutting himself up more. He liked staying in his room without anyone to talk to, even skipping meals sometimes. He still didn't like making friends, he was happier by himself.

But neither Hades nor Bianca said or did anything, because he'd stopped talking about his friends and that was all that mattered to them.

“Eat breakfast, Arachidi, you'll never get through school if you don't,” Hades said. He slid a bagel in front of his son.

Nico mumbled something about not getting through school anyway, but dug into his bagel.

Bianca picked up her bag. “I have to meet Zoe, I'll see you after school Papa.” She kissed his cheek and headed out the door.

Nico swallowed the last of the first half of his bagel and stood up. “Ah ah,” his father said, pushing the second half closer to him. “Finish your breakfast.”

“Bianca didn't!” Nico knew how much his voice sounded like whining, but he didn't care.

“Bianca ate dinner last night. Finish.”

Rolling his eyes and mumbling to himself, Nico picked up the second half of his bagel and inhaled it. With his mouth still full he swung his bag onto his shoulder and waved to Hades before following Bianca out the door.

* * *

Bianca sighed and rubbed the back of her neck. She'd taken a test in physics that day, and stayed up until two o'clock that morning studying for it. People thought it was easy being smart, but sometimes she wished she wasn't. People expect always expected her to do well. Sometimes she didn't want to have to work hard enough to meet their expectations.

Her father said she would never regret being smart, but she was pretty sure she regretted it right now.

She was exhausted and she still had another paper to finish – it wasn't due until the day after and she was about three-quarters done, but still – and she really just wanted to lie down, but it was her turn to make dinner. And she had to do it, because her father wasn't home from work yet and the last time they'd let Nico make dinner he'd nearly burned down the building and they'd ended up ordering out.

Just because he was Italian didn't mean he could cook.

She made her way into the kitchen and looked around. They had pasta, but she was so damn sick of pasta it wasn't even funny. Well, maybe a little funny.

Nico loved nachos, and they had everything they needed for those. Bianca wasn't opposed to them either. She didn't particularly like them the way Nico liked them, just chips with melted cheese and maybe some sour cream. But she could add some actual vegetables (oh the horror) onto hers and then they'd be good.

She grated some cheese, chopped up some peppers, put some chips on a pan, sprinkled the cheese on the chips and the peppers on half the pan, and stuck them in the oven. When they were done, she pulled them out and set them on the stove to cool.

“Nico!” she called. There was no answer. She sighed and rolled her eyes. Nico liked to play his music really loudly, and he usually couldn't hear her or their father when they called for him.

She walked down the hall to his room and raised her fist to knock when she heard it.

Nico was laughing.

“I know, and did you hear her nose whistle when she laughed?” he asked. There was a pause, and then he laughed again.

Maybe he was on the telephone.

But no, Nico was the kind of person who couldn't talk on the telephone to save his life. He was so awkward, and he stuttered. And the only two people he ever talked to on the phone were her and Hades.

And this sounded an awful lot like when he used to talk to his friends.

Bianca took a deep breath. His friends were gone. They had been for years. He'd been seeing his therapist for just as long. Chiron would have noticed if there was something wrong. Nico was fine.

She knocked on the door, and a few seconds later it opened to reveal Nico's face. The New York air had done nothing for his complexion, she noticed.

“Dinner's ready.”

“'Kay, I'll be right out.”

The door closed before she could ask who he was talking to. Or even decide if she wanted to ask.

She went back into the kitchen, trying to convince herself that nothing was wrong.

Should she ask him? Maybe it was none of her business. Maybe she should just let it go. But last time her father had tried to let it go, and there had ended up being something seriously wrong with Nico. Last time he'd been delusional.

“Ooh, nachos,” came a voice from the doorway, interrupting her thoughts. Nico came in and sat down at the table. He looked up at Bianca expectantly.

She set the pan of nachos on the table without speaking and sat down across from her brother.

They ate in silence.

“Who were you talking to?” Bianca asked halfway through the meal. “When I knocked on your door.”

Nico froze.

_“Ha! I win!” Nico crowed as he took the little statue from Thalia's pile._

_Thalia chuckled. “Okay, okay, you don't need to rub it in my face.”_

_Nico was still grinning when he put down his next card. Thalia had gotten too good at this game, it was getting harder and harder to beat her._

_“What are we going to tell him about last night?” Percy whispered in his best friend's ear. He and Annabeth were standing against the windowsill, watching Thalia and Nico play._

_“She said she had an idea,” Annabeth said._

_“Great. Remember what happened last time we took her advice? We nearly died!”_

_Annabeth laughed. “Don't be stupid Percy.”_

_“What's so funny?” Nico asked, looking up at them._

_“Nothing,” Percy answered._

_“Didn't you have something to tell him?” Annabeth asked Thalia._

_Thalia sighed and set down her cards on the bed. “Nico,” she started._

_“Yeah?”_

_“We, uh…” She glanced up at Annabeth and Percy. “We need you to tell them that we're gone.”_

_Nico blinked. “Everyone?”_

_She nodded. “Everyone.”_

“No one.”

Bianca closed her eyes. “I don't want to go through this again, Nico. I heard you talking to someone. Tell me it was the phone, if that's the truth. Or you're hiding someone in your closet, I don't care. Just, tell me it's not…” She didn't need to finish.

“It's not! Bianca, they've been gone for five years! I told you…”

“Tell her.”

Nico stopped. He didn't turn to look at Thalia. He'd trained himself over the years to pretend that they didn't exist, only listening to them, and talking to them when he was alone.

“Tell her, Nico,” Annabeth echoed.

“It's time,” Percy added.

Nico clenched his fist. After five years he almost couldn't bring himself to say it.

“What?” Bianca asked.

“Fine,” he said, almost to quiet for Bianca to hear.

“Fine what?”

“Fine, I was talking to them.”

Bianca looked horrified. “You said they were gone.”

Nico looked down at the table. “They weren't.”

“But…why? Why didn't you tell the truth?”

“They told me to say they were gone,” he whispered. Thalia came forward and put a hand on his shoulder.

“It's okay,” she said.

Bianca took a deep breath and stood up. “Okay,” she said, matching Nico's volume. “Go to your room and do your homework. I'll clean up and call Papa.”

“No, Bianca please, don't call him!”

“I have to!” she shouted. Her eyes filled with tears. “Nico, there is something wrong. Don't you see that? They're telling you to do things! That's a sign of schizophrenia!”

“I don't have schizophrenia! You were all just overreacting, there's nothing wrong with me! It's not my fault you can't see them!”

“I'm not blaming you,” Bianca said. Her voice lowered and a few tears dripped down her face. “I know it's not your fault, but we need to do something.”

Nico turned around and stormed back to his room.

At the sound of the slamming door, Bianca started sobbing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry to anyone who wanted to read the Halloween one-shot that I promised for yesterday. It's not finished. I'm currently going through one of those terrible times when I think that all of my writing is terrible and I'm not motivated at all. So I don't know when it will be finished. Sorry.


	9. Back to the Start

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own The Scientist by Coldplay, or Jani (she isn't mentioned by name but if you know who she is then you'll get the reference). Reverend Alex and all of the people in the articles (with the exception of the last) are original characters.

_Nobody said it was easy  
_ _Oh it's such a shame for us to part  
_ _Nobody said it was easy  
_ _No one ever said it would be so hard  
_ _I'm going back to the start  
_ – The Scientist _, Coldplay_

Hades sat in his car, his hands wrapped around the steering wheel. He couldn't believe this was happening. He'd thought this nightmare was over five years ago. He didn't understand. Maybe he'd done it wrong? Maybe he'd missed something. He should have asked a priest to help. He should have known that he couldn't do it by himself.

Maybe they were right. Maybe Nico really did have something wrong with him. Maybe there was nothing Hades could do but pray.

He found himself thanking God that Bianca wasn't in the car with him as tears rolled down his cheeks. He rested his forehead on the steering wheel. What the hell had happened to his family? First Maria, now this. Was Bianca next?

No. He couldn't think like that.

Nico had a problem, and as his father it was Hades' job to fix it. That was what he'd always been taught. Either he'd done the spell wrong, or they really weren't demons. But there was only one way to find out.

Hades lifted his head, and reached down to start the car. It was time to go see a priest.

* * *

It took him an hour to find a church where someone might have time to talk to him. The church was suggested to him by an old woman who had lived in a small community outside the city, but had to move because she couldn't care for herself anymore. She said that the Reverend always had time for someone in need, which Hades most certainly was.

Which was why he found himself calling Bianca from a town with maybe three hundred residents two hours later to tell her that he wasn't going to be able to pick Nico up and could she please do it?

Bianca agreed and Hades hung up the phone. He sat in his car, staring at the church in front of him. It was white with red doors. He remembered his mother telling him something long ago about churches with red doors, but for the life of him he couldn't remember what it was.

He shrugged and climbed out of the car. A breeze ruffled his hair and he pulled his jacket out of his car. It was chilly here, chillier than in the city. But he sort of liked it. It reminded him of Italy. Maybe someday he'd bring Bianca and Nico here.

Next to the church was a park, with a swing set in the far left corner and a basketball court in the back. A few teenage boys were shooting baskets on the court, and a little girl sat on the swings. Down the road Hades saw a general store, and a few houses farther on. It seemed like a nice little town, although a little too quiet for Hades' taste.

He put his hands in his pockets and walked toward the church. He pulled open one of the red doors. Inside, the church looked like any other church Hades had ever seen. There were rows of pews, and an aisle leading up to a set of stairs, which in turn led to an alter. Behind the alter were four stained glass windows depicting four men. They ranged from what looked like early twenties to maybe sixties, but Hades had a feeling that they were the same man in different stages of his life. To his right was an organ. It's pipes reached to roof. It was a beautiful instrument.

“Mark, you can just leave the lilies on the stairs, I'll come out and set them up,” a woman said from a closed door to the left of the stairs. When Hades said nothing, the door opened. The woman stepped out. She had very light brown hair and was wearing jeans and a white blouse. “Sorry, I thought you were someone else.” She came closer, a smile plastered on her face. “I haven't seen you around before. Welcome to Lady of the Valley Episcopal Church, how can I help you?”

“I am looking for Reverend Alex, is he hereh?”

The woman laughed and stuck out her hand. “I'm Reverend Alex.”

As Hades took the woman's hand, he remembered what his mother had said about red doors on a church. Episcopalian churches had red doors. And they were different from Catholic ones. They had woman reverends, for one.

“I am sorry, I was expecting a man.”

“That's fine. Can I help you with something?”

“My nameh is Hades di Angelo, I liveh in Man'atten.”

Alex nodded. “I didn't think I'd seen you before. Are you thinking about moving here?”

Hades shook his head. “No, no, I am hereh about my son. 'is name is Nico. I believeh…” he took a deep breath. “I believeh 'e 'as demons.”

“Demons,” Alex repeated slowly. Hades nodded.

“'e 'as…friends, 'e calls dem. I take 'im to psy…psych…”

“Psychologist?”

He smiled and nodded. “Yes. She say 'e 'aveh delusion. But…I do not tink so. I try to do a spell, makeh de demons go away, 'e say dey do, but now 'e say dey do not. Dey tell 'im to say dey do.”

“You tried to make them go away?”

“Yes. For fiveh years, I tink dey areh goneh. But no.”

Alex smiled and sighed. “Mr. di Angelo, were you raised Catholic?”

“Yes.”

She gestured with her hand, and led him towards the pews. They sat. “The Catholic church teaches you about demons. Like the ones you think your son is plagued by.”

“Yes.”

“You came to me. I'm not Catholic. Do you mind if I tell you what I think, as an Episcopalian?”

“Pleaseh do.”

Alex put folded her hands in her lap. “We create our own demons. Demons don't come to us to hurt us. They're caused by things like guilt. How old is your son, Nico?”

“'e is fifteen, 'is friends comeh when 'e is fiveh.”

“I don't think a five year old boy would create demons like that. Maybe they are delusions, like the psychologist said, or maybe they're something else, but I personally would not call them demons.”

Hades looked down. He hadn't been raised to believe that, but maybe Alex had a point. “Tank you,” he said, looking back up at her. They stood up.

Alex held out her hand and Hades shook it. “It was very nice to meet you, Mr. di Angelo. I'll be sure to keep your son in my prayers.”

Hades smiled. “Tank you again, Reverend. You 'ave a lovely town.”

“I guess it's pretty nice,” she said. They chuckled, and Hades bid her goodbye and made his way back to his car.

When he'd shut the door behind him, he sat there for a moment with his hands on the steering wheel. Maybe they weren't demons. Reverend Alex had made a good point. It made sense, even if it wasn't what he'd been taught.

But if they weren't demons, what were they?

Five years ago, Dr. Wright had told him that Nico had created these people to take the role of the mother that he didn't have. Maybe that held some truth. Maybe God had sent them to protect Nico. After all, they'd been there for ten years, and they hadn't done anything.

Hades still believed in demons, and he refused to dismiss the possibility that they were in fact demons. But he was willing to look into other possibilities, too.

With a smile on his face, Hades drove back to Manhattan.

 

* * *

Bianca yawned. It was a little past midnight, but she couldn't sleep. As she walked towards her room, she stopped outside Nico's door. She pushed it open.

Nico was lying on the bed, fast asleep, the covers pulled up to his chin. Sometimes she couldn't believe that everything they said was true. He was just her little brother. Sometimes he was just the same little boy who she'd lived with in Italy. It was hard to believe that he'd changed so much.

Her father was convinced that there was nothing wrong with Nico, that something was tormenting him. But Bianca was a scientist. She liked chemistry, especially. She planned to be a forensic chemist. And she didn't believe in things like demons and monsters.

There was something strange about her brother, and maybe it wasn't hallucinations, but it definitely wasn't demons, or whatever Hades thought it was now.

Bianca sighed and shut the door again. After reaching her own room down the hall, she dropped down on the mattress and stared up at the ceiling.

This wasn't helping. She swung herself off the bed and grabbed her laptop from her desk, then sat back down on the bed. She snuggled herself under the covers and opened the laptop to turn it on. There was something about this that didn't seem natural, and she was going to figure it out. And if she couldn't sleep, she might as well get started.

She opened Google, and her fingers paused over the keys. What exactly was she looking for? After a moment, she typed in  _childhood hallucinations_ . The result was a list of medical sites. She looked at a few of them, but they told her what she'd learned from the doctors.

Bianca closed her eyes and chuckled, then opened her eyes and tried again. She couldn't believe she was actually typing this in, but she entered  _could childhood hallucinations be demons_ into the search bar. Again she got medical sites, but among them she found a few articles about the possibility of some imaginary friends being spirits. That was insane, of course, and it wasn't relevant to Nico, but it was slightly intriguing. She tried  _childhood hallucinations spirits_ , and then  _imaginary friends spirits_ , but eventually she gave up. That was a dead end.

She took a deep breath and typed  _notable cases of childhood hallucinations_ . Among articles about a young girl with childhood-onset schizophrenia (who was apparently very famous), and one about a type of asthma medication causing hallucinations in children, she found one about a boy in England who had reportedly seen people, people who talked to him and played with him as a child. It was disturbingly similar to Nico's case.

The boy had died.

At the bottom of the page were links to similar article. Bianca clicked on one. It was about a girl in Minnesota whose mother had found her in the backyard after she'd said that she was going to go play with her friends. The mother had never met the friends. The girl looked like she had fallen backwards off the swing.

Another talked about a girl in Los Angeles, who had been admitted to a mental institution after talking about her “friends”, who no one else could see, and had eventually been found hanging from the light in her room, dead. That was in 1934.

There were more, mostly the same. Some had been put in mental institutions, but only as dangers to themselves. The friends always came at a young age. Some, like the girl from Los Angeles, had killed themselves, but most had just been found dead. No marks, no fingerprints, not even any signs of heart failure or any other medical problems. It seemed like they had just stopped breathing suddenly. But they had one thing in common. Not a single one of them had survived.

The cases dated back hundreds of years. The oldest one Bianca found was in 1503, but she suspected that if there had been more newspapers any earlier than that, there would have been more cases.

It was nearly two in the morning when Bianca stumbled upon a case from Merin, New Hampshire in the winter of 1829. A sixteen year old girl had been found in the woods behind her house. The girl had been seen talking to thin air, and her neighbors had reported hearing her talk to someone who never answered and wasn't there, as far as they could see. Her family wasn't well liked, so some people had written it off as suicide. But there had been no marks. And despite the fact that it was the middle of the winter in New Hampshire and she'd been found outside, there were no signs of freezing.

Bianca's breath caught in her throat as she read the article. It wasn't possible, it couldn't be possible, things like this didn't happen.

The girl's name was Thalia Grace.

 


	10. Your Reality

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own Imaginary by Evanescence. Matt Withers, Jacob Anderson, Mrs. Larsen and Mr. MacLeon are all original characters.

_Don’t say I’m out of touch  
_ _With this rampant chaos - your reality  
_ _I know well what lies beyond my sleeping refuge  
_ _The nightmare I built my own world to escape  
_ – Imaginary,  __ Evanescence

Nico woke to a bang on his door. The sun hadn't quite risen yet, but New York was never completely dark. It was one of the things he disliked about the city. The lights, the traffic, the noises – it was like he could never get a moment's peace.

“Come on, Nico!” he heard Bianca yell from the other side of the door. “You're going to be late!”

She and his father hadn't mentioned his friends since the first visit back to the doctor, except to ask how his sessions were going, and he knew that was just them trying to make conversation. It seemed harder and harder now. They didn't have much to talk about anymore. It seemed like their entire lives revolved around whether or not Nico was going to get better.

There was nothing wrong with him, and he'd tried so hard to tell them that. But he couldn't make them understand.

He sighed and pushed back the covers. A quick glance at the clock on his nightstand told him that it was 5:40, ten minutes after he was supposed to wake up. Either the alarm hadn't gone off, or he'd slept through it. The latter was more likely.

It was when he sat up that he realized how quiet it really was.

The traffic outside the window was still as loud as ever. Early risers (or not so early risers who had to rise early anyway) were talking and walking below the window. Street vendors who wanted to get a jump start on the day were out there yelling at the passersby to buy whatever it was that they were selling. Faintly he could hear the subway trains squealing on the tracks at the station that they lived so close to.

But inside the room, it was silent. Annabeth wasn't sitting on the windowsill scolding him for leaving his boxers on the floor (which he'd done, again, because she hadn't been there last night to tell him not to). Percy wasn't sitting in the desk chair spinning around and tossing whatever he could find up in the air to catch it with the other hand. Thalia wasn't sitting on the floor next to his closet, with one leg pulled up to her chest and the other stretched out in front of her and her arms crossed, smirking at the other three.

Of course, it wasn't the first time he'd been left to his own devices for a while. Sometimes they weren't around. He didn't know what they were doing when they weren't with him. It wasn't as if they could have errands to run. Or maybe they did. He didn't know.

Nico shook his head. They'd be back eventually. But for the time being, he'd already wasted another five minutes and if he didn't get going he was going to have to walk to school instead of getting a ride with Bianca, who always left early.

He made it into the kitchen with just enough time to grab one of the bagels that their father made them every morning, and then to grab the other because he knew that Bianca was out in the car and would forget to eat if he didn't remind her, and run to the car. Bianca was ready to pull out of the driveway when he hopped into the passenger seat and handed her the extra bagel.

“Stop forgetting to eat,” he said, and took a bite of his own breakfast.

Bianca rolled her eyes but took the bagel anyway.

“Did you even sleep last night?” he asked around his bagel. “I didn't hear you go to bed.”

“I slept,” she answered. Her voice was quiet.

Nico didn't press the issue, even though he could tell she was hiding something.

When they got to school Bianca parked the car and climbed out. “Hey, you're walking home today, unless you want to wait until Zoe and I finish our project.”

Nico shuddered. “I'll walk,” he said quickly. Bianca and Zoe had been assigned a project in Anatomy on the structures of different animal hearts. They had to dissect the hearts of five different kinds of animals. A few days ago Nico had stayed with them because it was pouring rain and he didn't want to walk home. They had been dissecting a cow heart. It was the most disgusting thing Nico had ever seen – he'd had to leave the room so he didn't throw up.

They walked into the building together and when they reached the stairs they parted ways. Bianca had Civics on the first floor, and Nico had Geometry (God, kill him now) on the third.

He managed to survive Geometry and Mandarin Chinese (which he was probably failing, he should have just taken Italian, he wouldn't have had to study anything and he'd have been able to pass with flying colors). He was heading down to lunch before Biology when he ran into Matt Withers and Jacob Anderson on the stairwell.

Matt Withers was a senior. Technically, at least. He had the maturity level of a ten year old and was taking more than a few remedial classes. According to the kids Nico had heard talking in the halls (to each other, never to him), Matt was what was called a “super senior”. It wasn't his first time in senior year. Nico seriously doubted that Matt would graduate this year either. But he was big, bigger than a lot of the guys on the football team. He would have been on the football team, he actually had been in freshman year, but his grades weren't high enough (hence the repeating senior year) and he'd gotten kicked off. Unfortunately, he still liked to keep his muscle training up, and since he couldn't take out his frustrations on the football field, he used people like Nico instead.

Jacob Anderson was a junior, and he was on the football team. Nico thought maybe Jacob could be a good kid if he hadn't started hanging out with Matt. He was smart, maybe not genius level, but he could pull off mostly Bs. No one really knew why he was friends with Matt, but one day they'd just started spending every possible moment of the day together. The next day, Nico had found himself with two tormentors instead of one.

“Hey, look't this,” Matt said, grinning. His arms were crossed as if it helped him look more tough (not that he really needed the help, but Nico wasn't about to say that). One of his front teeth was missing, knocked out in a fight a few years before. His shirt was the color of dried blood. It really didn't help Nico's fear.

Jacob snorted. “Where you off to, fagot?”

“I'm not a fagot,” Nico mumbled, but he didn't sound convincing even to himself. He wasn't, really, but he was so small and a bit feminine looking, and apparently that made Matt and Jacob think he was. Gay, that is.

Matt reached out and took Nico's shirt in his fist. “Yeah you are,” he said, still smirking.

_Is that really the best you can come up with?_ Nico wanted to ask, but as usual his mouth wasn't working. It never was around these two. Maybe that was why they targeted him.

“Where's your boyfriend?” Jason asked in a high, mocking voice. “Oh, that's right, you don't have one. 'Cause no one wants you.”

“'M not the only one,” Nico found the courage to say.

Matt shook him hard. “What'd you say, fagot?”

“I'm not the only one,” Nico repeated, louder. He didn't know where this was coming from, but he plowed on. “You guys spend so much time together, there's no way you're not fucking.”

He didn't think about it then, with all the adrenalin pumping through his blood, but they should have been there. Thalia, at least. They always showed up when Matt and Jacob were harassing him. They were the ones who made sure he didn't say anything stupid. Like he just had.

Matt's face turned livid. He drew back his fist and hit Nico across the face, letting go of his shirt at the same time so that Nico fell flat on his back. “We're not the ones who like it up the ass,” he said, giving a well-aimed kick to Nico's right side.

Nico coughed and lifted himself up onto his elbows, ignoring the searing pain in his ribs and the taste of blood in his mouth. He cursed the damn stairwells. They'd picked the perfect place to do this. There were cameras everywhere, but the ones in the stairs couldn't see the landing between the second and third floors. “Oh come on,” he panted. “Everyone knows it.”

Jacob knelt down, lifted Nico up by his collar, and slammed his head into the floor. “Shut your fucking mouth,” he hissed.

“You afraid I'll tell?” Nico asked. Part of his brain was screaming at him to shut up, but he ignored it. His vision was blurry and Jacob seemed to be swimming in front of his eyes.

Matt kicked him again, hard, and Nico rolled towards the stairs. “Shut up!” Matt yelled, and kicked him again. This one sent Nico down the ten steps to the second floor.

There was a clacking of high heels and a second later a woman rounded the corner. “What is going on here?!” she demanded, before seeing Nico lying on his stomach on the floor. He was breathing hard and trying not to cry. His face was pressed into the floor and he was breathing in dust and dirt, but his ribs hurt and he didn't want to move. His forehead was bleeding. God, why was he so stupid? He shouldn't have said anything. He could have gotten away fine.

The teacher, who Nico now recognized as Mrs. Larsen the Spanish teacher, knelt down in front of him and helped him roll over and sit up. Then she glanced up to glare at the two boys above them.

Nico didn't think he'd ever seen Matt Withers or Jacob Anderson looked scared, but now they looked terrified. He didn't think they'd meant to hurt him the way they had. But Matt had zero control over his anger. Normally Thalia could stop Nico from talking back to them, because she knew all about Matt's temper and she knew that Nico didn't think things through. But she wasn't there. Where was she? And Percy and Annabeth, where were they?

A tear rolled down Nico's face before he could stop it. He wiped it away quickly, wincing when he touched his sore cheek.

“Matt. Jacob. Stay there,” Mrs. Larsen ordered. She turned her attention back to Nico. “Can you walk?” she asked, gently this time.

Nico nodded, and immediately wished he hadn't. His vision swam, and he squeezed his eyes shut. He swore softly, and Mrs. Larsen didn't reprimand him, but he might have said it in Italian.

“Stay here,” she said quietly. Nico didn't respond and she didn't wait for him to, just walked away, her heels clacking against the floor.

He could hear Matt and Jacob whispering to each other, but his head hurt too much for him to make out what they were saying. A few minutes later he opened his eyes to see Mrs. Larsen coming back. She looked up at the two boys. “Come here,” she ordered, and they wasted no time doing as she said.

“I don't think I really need to ask this. But I’m going to give you one chance to tell me the truth, and I'm sure when Nico is feeling up to it he'll verify your stories. Now, what happened?”

There was a moment of clearing throats before Matt answered. “We hit him.”

Nico would have snorted, but he was sure that his ribs wouldn't take kindly to that.

“That's all?”

The boys nodded.

“How did he fall down the stairs? Or did you hit him from up there?”

Matt mumbled something about kicking Nico.

Mrs. Larsen sighed. “I can't say I'm surprised that Matt is involved in something like this. But you, Jacob? I would  _never_ have thought you would do this.”

“I know,” Jacob mumbled. He sounded like he was about to cry.

“You know Coach Emerson won't stand for this. You'll lose your scholarship.”

_Scholarship?_

Nico knew Jacob. Not well, of course, but he knew what Jacob had been like before he started hanging out with Matt. He was one of the most hardworking people Nico knew. And if there was anyone who deserved that scholarship, it was Jacob.

“He didn't do anything.”

Mrs. Larsen, Jacob, and Matt all looked down at him. Nico glanced up, locking eyes with Mrs. Larsen. “Jacob didn't touch me.” His voice wasn't strong, but in the quiet stairwell it seemed to resonate.

“Nico, don't try to cover for him,” Mrs. Larsen said. “If he hurt you, he needs to face consequences.”

Nico almost shook his head, but thought better of it and said, “I swear, it was just Matt.”

Matt's mouth opened and shut like a fish's, but no sound came out. Jacob looked shocked. Mrs. Larsen sighed. “Alright. Matt, you can go with Mr. MacLeon when he gets here.” Mr. MacLeon was their vice principal, and he dealt with all the troublemakers. Nico had a feeling that he'd seen Matt before. “Jacob, you should have said something, so you'll be punished for that. A few detentions with me should do it, I think.” She obviously didn't believe Nico, but there wasn't anything she could do without proof. “For the moment, Jacob, you can help me bring Nico to the nurse. Ah, and here's Mr. MacLeon.”

As if on cue, Mr. MacLeon was descending the stairs from his office on the third floor. He sighed. “How are you feeling, Nico?” he asked.

“Been better,” Nico said. His voice was still breathy, but stronger than it had been.

Mr. MacLeon nodded and put his hand on Matt's back. “Both of them?” he asked Mrs. Larsen.

She shook her head and gestured to Matt. “Come on then, Mr. Withers,” Mr. MacLeon said, and began leading Matt up the stairs.

Jacob leaned down to give Nico his hand. When he met Nico's eyes, he mouthed  _Thank you_ .

Nico didn't answer. He would have expected his friends to be there. They were always there when he needed them, and he needed them now. But there was a sinking feeling in his stomach that told him they might not be coming back.

* * *

“Did you start it?” Hades asked in Italian as soon as Nico had shut the door.

“No.”

“Did you hit them?”

“No.”

“Are you going to tell me what happened?”

Nico leaned his head back. “I really don't want to talk right now.”

“Niccolo, you got into a fight. We're going to talk.”

“It wasn't a fight!” Nico yelled, lifting his head up too quickly. It started pounding, but he ignored it. “They called me a fagot, and I said I wasn't the only one. And they started hitting me.”

“I thought it was just the one boy.”

“It was,” Nico mumbled. He turned his head to face the window.

Hades sighed. “What's going on, Nico? This isn't like you.”

Nico stared out the window without speaking. A few minutes later, his voice breaking, he said, “They're gone.”

“Who?”

“You know who, Papa.”

Hades let out a breath. “Really, this time? They didn't tell you to say that?”

Nico looked down into his lap, tears falling down his face. “No. They're really gone. I don't know why, I didn't do anything.”

Hades didn't answer, just continued driving through the New York traffic.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll be honest, I love this chapter.
> 
> I'm not uploading a Thanksgiving one-shot, so I'm posting two chapters of Along the Way and two of White Rose to make up for it. Sorry to anyone who wanted a Thanksgiving story.


	11. Your Soul is on Fire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own Shot in the Dark by Within Temptation. Merin, New Hampshire is an original place, and Nigel is an original character.

‘ _Cause your soul is on fire **  
**A shot in the dark, **  
**What did they aim for when they missed your heart? **  
**I breathe underwater **  
**It’s all in my hands **  
**What can I do? **  
**Don’t let it fall apart **  
**A shot in the dark  
_ – Shot in the Dark __, Within Temptation

Nico's ribs weren't broken, just bruised, but they hurt like hell, so his father let him stay home for a few days. His headache didn't really go away, but he found that enough Tylenol would fix just about anything. And since he was home along for two days, he could afford to take plenty.

When he went back to school on Monday, everyone stared at him. It was the weirdest thing he'd ever experienced – people never even noticed him. He hadn't even been “the boy who talks to people who aren't there”, or the “crazy kid”, because no one ever found out. He was always just part of the scenery.

But now people pointed at him and whispered when he passed them in the hallway. It made him a little sick, and combined with the aching in his ribs the whole day seemed like it would take an eternity.

He still hadn't seen any of his friends, and it was the feeling of being completely and absolutely alone that kept him from eating much of anything for days on end, that kept him awake at night, that made him unable to concentrate. He hadn't been truly alone like this for ten years.

Bianca refused to stay after school at all unless Hades could drive Nico home. She didn't want him walking through the streets of New York alone. She also set up meeting times with him – during lunch and between classes – to make sure he was alright. Nico didn't mind. She'd been very distant lately, junior year was catching up on her, and it was nice to be able to spend time with her again. Even if it was so that she could be sure he wasn't getting the shit beat out of him.

Matt was suspended for two weeks, and given In School Suspension for another one. Jacob stopped talking to Matt, but he went looking for Nico on Monday to say that he was sorry and to thank Nico again for not telling anyone that he'd been involved on Wednesday. Nico just shrugged, nodded, and wished for the hundredth time that he could go home.

He missed his appointment with Chiron that Wednesday, not consciously, he'd fallen asleep and when he'd woken up it was past the time of his appointment. The next week when he went to see Chiron, he couldn't bring himself to talk.

It wasn't as though that was uncommon, sometimes he just didn't like talking to Chiron. Sometimes his friends would go with him, sometimes he was on his own. Whenever he went alone, they were always waiting at home to talk to him about the session. This time, he knew that they wouldn't be waiting.

“So, Nico, your father told me that your friends have gone away.”

Nico folded his legs under him in the chair and stared at the floor.

“Why do you think they've gone?”

He didn't move.

“Did you tell them to leave?”

Why the hell would he do that? They were the only things that kept him sane. Which had been proved over the past week. He felt like he was barely hanging on, and he blinked hard to fight back tears as he wondered for what felt like the millionth time what he'd done to make them abandon him.

“Avoiding my questions isn't going to help you, Nico. I need you to talk to me. I think you'll find that this isn't as big a problem as you think it is.”

Nico clenched his fists.

“Can you tell me how you feel right now? About your friends?”

Upset. Angry. Terrified.

“You don't need them, Nico.”

That was a lie. Chiron was lying to him. Chiron was wrong. If Thalia had been there she would have told him to stop talking, if he had been in the first place. We don't talk to liars, she always told him. We don't react to people who want to do us harm. We don't trust people without good reason. Chiron hadn't given him one.

“We don't talk to liars,” Nico whispered.

He didn't know if Chiron had heard him, but it didn't matter, because someone had to say it and Thalia wasn't there to do so.

* * *

He didn't talk for the rest of the session, and he didn't talk to his father in the car. When they got home, he went straight to his room.

He threw himself down on the bed. He'd never been alone like this. Thalia should be there. She was the one he talked to. That's all he needed, someone to talk to. Maybe then he'd feel better.

A part of him was wondering if maybe Chiron and the psychiatrist he'd gone to see five years before were right. Maybe they were just hallucinations. The thought made him feel like something was constricting his throat, it terrified him. He sat up, his hands behind him to prop himself up on the bed, breathing heavily and choking down sobs.

They couldn't be hallucinations. They were there for him when he needed them, they helped him when no one else could, not even his family. They _were_ his family. They had to be real.

But that's what hallucinations were, wasn't it? The doctor said that Nico had created them to protect him, since he didn't have a mother to do so.

His arms weren't strong enough to hold him up anymore, so he crashed back down onto the bed, tears streaming down his cheeks.

He remembered the night five years ago, the one right before they'd told him to say they were gone. He'd had a terrible dream. He could still remember it: he'd been lying in his bed and Thalia, Percy, and Annabeth were all in his room. They were glowing gold, pulsing, and for some reason it had terrified him. He didn't know why.

It was confusing; they'd looked human, but at the same time he was sure that they weren't. The glow was almost too bright for him to look at. And creeping through his room was a pure white fog. It had reached every corner of his room, but it hadn't been able to penetrate the golden glows around his friends. They had looked almost translucent.

He didn't know why it had been so frightening, but he'd never been able to forget it. It was the pearly white fog and its source that seemed to be on the left side of Nico's bed that scared him the most. Somehow he knew that they wanted to take his friends away from him.

Maybe they had managed it.

Nico didn't realize that his eyes had clamped shut until he opened them to stare up at the ceiling. He turned his head to see the picture that he always kept there.

It was him and Bianca in the park. It was taken when he was eleven. He and Bianca were sitting on the Alice in Wonderland statue, Bianca on the big mushroom sitting just in front of Alice and him on the smaller mushroom in front of his sister. The sky was cloudy, like it was about to rain. There was no one else there. They were both smiling.

What Nico saw, and what no one else could, was that they weren't alone. Thalia straddled Alice's neck behind Bianca. Annabeth was perched on the Mad Hatter's hat. Percy sat on the mushroom in front of Nico.

Hades and Bianca had never seen them. For a while it had reassured them that they were in the photograph, because if they were hallucinations they wouldn't have showed up, right? Now he wasn't so sure. Maybe he was hallucinating them in the photo, too.

He scanned his walls, looking at the other pictures that were taped there. Pictures of him and Bianca, or him and Hades, or Bianca and Hades, or all three of them. Some appeared empty, but really Thalia or Percy or Annabeth or sometimes all three posed there. Nico stood up and crossed the room to take one of them off the wall. It looked like just him in a swimming pool in a hotel they'd stayed at once. In the picture he was eight. One of his front teeth was missing from his wide smile. His arms were folded on the side of the pool. To Hades and Bianca he was alone, but he saw Percy right next to him in the same position, and behind them Thalia and Annabeth in the shallow end. It was his favorite picture.

In a moment of fury he threw the frame across the room. The glass shattered and the wooden frame cracked in half. Other pictures followed. The air and floor shimmered with broken glass. One hit the lamp and knocked it onto the floor, but he didn't stop. Some of the pictures that had just been taped onto the wall, without frames, ripped when he tore them off. Some of them he ripped intentionally.

“Nico!” he heard over the sound of breaking frames, and he felt a pair of arms wrap around his shoulders. He stopped moving and let his sister hug him. He hadn't realized until now that his hands were bleeding, and he didn't know when they'd started to do so. He also didn't know when he'd started crying, but now his breaths turned into sobs and he cried into Bianca's shoulder.

She shushed him and whispered meaningless words into his ears, stroking his hair the way she had when he was little. Sometimes Nico hated being so small, but now he was grateful for it. He fit with Bianca perfectly.

After a while she released him and led him over to his bed, where she lay him down and tucked him in like she had when he was little. He fell asleep with the picture of the five of them on the Alice in Wonderland statue in his mind's eye.

* * *

As soon as Bianca got her brother to calm down and go to sleep, she went to her room. Nico was getting worse. She'd spent hours upon hours researching the cases, but the internet could only tell her so much. She needed answers.

She grabbed her keys, wallet, and phone from her purse, then changed her mind and took the whole purse. Then she left to find her father. He was in the kitchen, staring at the newspaper, but Bianca doubted that he was really reading it. He looked up when she entered.

“Is he alright?” he asked quietly in Italian.

She nodded. “For now.” She kissed his cheek, then headed towards the door. “I'm going out.”

“Where?”

She paused with her hand on the doorknob. She couldn't exactly tell him the truth, could she? “Meeting up with Zoe.”

Hades nodded. “Have fun,” he said, and looked back down at the paper.

Bianca sighed in relief. It was the first time she'd ever lied to her father, but it was necessary.

When she'd made it to her car, she sent a quick text to Zoe. _If my dad asks im with u._

She started the car and had pulled out into the New York traffic when Zoe answered. _Lying 2 ur dad, B? Wtf?_

Bianca sighed and, keeping an eye on the road, texted, _Sleeping over 2_.

_What r u actually doing?_

_Helping Nico_

_Need anything?_

_Just cover 4 me_

Zoe didn't answer, and Bianca didn't expect one. She'd never asked Zoe to cover for her on anything, least of all for something like this. But it was important.

Her heart was racing until she'd made it out of the city, and her breathing didn't calm down until she'd pulled into a rest stop just outside of the state. She rested her forehead against the steering wheel and took a few deep breaths. It was about six, but she wasn't hungry. She was too nervous to eat.

After a moment she went into the convenient store at the rest stop and got a bag of chips and a ginger ale. Then she put the ginger ale back and grabbed a Mountain Dew. Not her favorite, but she needed the caffeine. She had a long drive ahead of her.

It was ten thirty when she reached the New Hampshire/Massachusetts border, and by the time she'd found her way to Merin it was almost one in the morning. Merin was still as tiny as it had been in the 1800s, so she suspected that a motel room wouldn't cost much. But no matter how little it cost, she didn't want to bother spending the money on it when she had a perfectly good car to sleep in. So, despite the fact that it was about 30 degrees colder in New Hampshire and Bianca had experienced sub-zero temperatures maybe once in her life, she slept in her car with only her pathetic heater and her jacket for warmth.

The next morning she woke up to the sun shining in her eyes. It had been ages since she'd seen the sun shine this brightly, without any city smog to obscure it. She stepped out of her car and smiled.

“Hey!” she heard someone shout, and she turned around to see a boy maybe a few years older than her walking towards her. “Need any help?” he asked as he came closer.

Bianca had lived in a small town until she was seven, but she'd forgotten how friendly the people could be. “No, thanks,” she answered, smiling back at him.

He shoved his hands into his pockets and squinted against the sunlight. He was wearing an old black coat that looked worn and comfortable. On his hands he wore thin gloves. His coat had a hood, but it was hanging behind him. He had sneakers on his feet. She didn't know how he wasn't freezing.

“Ya sure? I'd be happy to give ya a hand if you need one. I'm Nigel, by the way.” He stuck his hand out. She took it, trying not to laugh. Nigel? Really?

“Well, thanks, Nigel, but really, I’m fine.”

Nigel shrugged. “Okay. You must be from out'a town.”

Bianca laughed and nodded. “Is it that obvious?”

“Y'ave an accent. People 'round here don't talk as pretty as you do.”

“Pretty?'

“Yeah. Yer from the city, ent'cha?”

She nodded again. “New York.”

Nigel whistled. “Wow. Never been, m'self.” He grinned. “Well, since yer from the big city and don't know yer way 'round, why don't I show you Annie's?”

“What's Annie's?”

“Best pancakes you'll evuh taste, thank you very much. Real maple syrup, too.” He jerked his head behind him. “C'mon, I'll show you.”

Bianca smiled, ducked her head into her car to get her wallet, and locked the car before following him to the diner.

Sure enough, Annie's served the best pancakes she'd ever had, along with the best coffee. She spent a good hour talking to Nigel about various places in town she should visit (he was under the impression that she was there as a tourist) before she got up the courage to ask about any old graveyards.

Nigel hummed and folded his hands under his chin. “Well, depends how old yer talkin'.”

“Early 1800s.”

“How come?”

Bianca bit her lip. “I'm looking for someone in particular.”

Nigel raised an eyebrow. “From the early 1800s? Friend o' yers?” He laughed at his own joke.

She resisted the urge to say _no, friend of my brother's_ and instead answered, “No, I'm just curious. I heard a story about her.”

“What's 'er name?”

“Thalia Grace.”

Nigel chuckled again. He cleared his throat and reached into his pocket for his wallet. “Ev'ryone knows'e story about Thalia Grace.” He pulled out a ten and a five and put it on the table. Bianca went for her own wallet, and Nigel gave her a funny look. “What're you doing?” he asked, like she'd just started trying to write with a hot dog.

“Paying for my meal?”

He looked at her like she was crazy. “What d'you think this is?” He gestured to the money on the table.

“That's going to pay for both of us?”

He nodded.

Bianca blinked and put her wallet back into her pocket. “Well, thank you.”

Nigel shrugged and stood up. He waved to the lady behind the front counter and lead her out the door.

“What d'you wanna know 'bout Thalia Grace?” he asked as they made their way down the street.

Bianca put her hands in her pocket. “I read some weird stuff about her on the internet. I wanted to know if it was true.”

“She talked to people who weren't there.” He over-pronounced his rs, she noticed. When he said them at all.

“I heard that. But what about her death? It said she just died.”

Nigel sighed. “Thalia Grace was strange. No one alive now can tell you, no one's that old, but she was. And it weren't just her, neither. Her mother uz weird too.”

“How?”

“Not as weird as Thalia. Never talked to people who weren't there. Never talked to no one, really. Least that's how the story goes. Legend says Thalia talked to spirits. Her mother drank 'em.” He chuckled. “The Graces didn't talk to no one 'ey didn't have to. Kept to themselves, mostly. Some say they were witches.”

“Witches?”

“Yup. Anyway, no one knows what 'appened, really. Just, Thalia died. Dropped dead in the woods one day.” He turned a corner, and Bianca noticed they were heading away from the village. The road they were on was made of dirt. Piled high on the sides of the road were snow banks. The cold air made Bianca shiver.

They walked in silence for maybe half a mile, until Nigel stopped in front of a house. The house looked old, but Bianca could tell that it had been maintained. Next to it was a graveyard. Nigel led her down a shoveled-out path to the low stone wall surrounding the graveyard. “Thalia's mother cou'n't survive on 'er own. Died a while after Thalia. Some say Thalia came back and killed 'er. Weren't no secret she was hittin' Thalia.”

Bianca followed him over the wall and through the old stones, being careful not to step on any of them. “They kept this house up to show people. They like to tell people Thalia's ghost haunts it, but really the Graces lived in'e village.” He stopped and pointed down at a stone on the ground, half covered with moss. It wasn't sticking up, just placed there on the ground. It wasn't marked. “Little kids died all'a time back then. Didn't have the money to bury 'em proper, so they just stuck 'em in the ground and put a rock on it. Some of the babies didn't even have names, 'cause they were born dead. Sad, huh?”

Bianca nodded, and Nigel continued weaving his way through the stones. “The Graces lived in the village,” he repeated, “but Thalia's buried 'ere anyhow.” He stopped in front of one headstone in the back corner. “I guess they felt bad. Teenagers died all'a time back then, but they didn't bother with the burials. I guess they wan'ed her buried proper, 'cause they felt bad for 'er.”

Bianca knelt in front of the stone. For a moment she remembered the day ten years ago when they'd been leaving and she'd seen a flash of a strange blue color. “What did Thalia look like?” she asked, tracing her fingers over the stone.

“Story says she had black hair and creepy blue eyes. Wicked bright. Except, creepy bright, like…”

“Electric?”

Nigel shrugged. “I never seen her, o'viously. But yeah, like that.”

Electric blue. That's how Nico had described her, too. Bianca was starting to get a headache. It couldn't be Thalia, because Thalia was dead, and ghosts didn't exist.

She'd come here for answers, but she was leaving with more questions. Somehow, though, she was glad she'd come. She'd needed to see this. She'd needed proof that Thalia had been a real person.

She smiled at Nigel and started standing up. “Careful of the rose!” he said quickly. She looked down. “The legend says if you crush the rose Thalia'll come an' kill you in yer sleep.”

Bianca chuckled and stood up, being careful of the white rose growing on Thalia's grave. “I don't believe in legends,” she said. “Thanks for showing me this. Any way you could help me find a gas station?”

Nigel nodded and started leading her out of the graveyard. As she climbed over the wall, she glanced back at Thalia's grave.

She couldn't help but wonder how a rose would stay alive in the winter.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I didn't update for, like, months. I'll really try to do better (do I say that every time?).


	12. Lost All My Tears

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own Blue Eyes by Within Temptation. Merin, New Hampshire is an original place and Dr. Moon is an original character.

_It's burning me up inside **  
**Lost all my tears, can't cry **  
**No reason, no meaning **  
**Just hatred  
_ – Blue Eyes _, Within Temptation_

Bianca spent a few more hours in Merin with Nigel seeing everything the little town had to offer – which was surprisingly interesting and made her homesick for Italy. They had lunch together, he gave her his number, and Bianca began driving home around 1:30. She stopped for dinner, and it was nearly ten by the time she got back to the apartment.

She closed her eyes and rested her forehead on the steering wheel when she'd parked the car. She was tired, and her phone had died, so she hadn't texted her father when school would have been ending. He would know that she'd lied to him.

When she opened the door, the apartment was dark and quiet, and she hoped for a moment that her father was in bed.

But a moment later she heard a soft noise and her father came around the corner into the kitchen. He stopped when he saw her.

“Bianca Gianna di Angelo,” he said quietly, and Bianca swallowed. She knew she was in trouble when he used her full name. “Where the hell have you been?” he asked in Italian.

“Zoe's,” she answered, hoping that he hadn't thought to call Zoe, and knowing that her father wasn't nearly that stupid.

Hades took a few steps closer. “Really? Because I called Zoe, and she was just as worried as I was.” He was close enough now that she could see the anger in his eyes, and the worry at the same time. “You've never lied to me, Bianca.”

“I know, Papa, I'm sorry.”

“Where were you?”

She gulped again, and decided that honesty was the best policy here. “Merin.”

Hades blinked. “What?”

“Merin. New Hampshire.”

Hades took a deep breath and rubbed his eyes. “Why the hell would you go to New Hampshire? What could possibly be so important that you'd skip school to drive to another state?”

“I thought I could help Nico.”

“What?”

Bianca sighed. “Just a second.” She made to move past him, and he grabbed her arm.

“No. You're going to explain, now.”

“Let me get my laptop, and I can show you.”

After a minute of staring at her, Hades let her go. She came back with the black laptop in her hands and set it on the table. She turned it on and opened to the few articles she'd bookmarked.

“About a week ago I was looking up some stuff on childhood hallucinations, to help Nico, right?” She looked up at her father, and he nodded for her to continue. “Well, I found these.” She flipped through the articles. “They're all about people who talked about their 'friends', and no one ever saw the friends.”

“Like Nico.”

She nodded. “Exactly. See, this one, a girl in Minnesota, and this boy in England, they date back hundreds of years, but they probably would go back farther if they'd had newspapers back then. They aren't all the same, but they all have one thing in common.”

“What?”

Bianca looked up at her father again. “They all die.”

Hades' face went pale. “All of them?”

She nodded and looked back at the screen. “Some of them just die, no explanation or anything. There was one boy in London who was found in the river, everyone thought he'd drowned but the coroner said his heart had stopped before he went under and there was no water in his lungs. A few of them killed themselves. There were even a few a long long time ago who were stoned or burned to death, because everyone thought they were witches. But every single one of them died.”

Hades took a seat at the table next to her. He put his face in his hands. “And you think that Nico will end up like the rest of them?”

“I went to New Hampshire to see if anyone could tell me anything. There was a girl there in the early 1800s. I wanted to see if there was more to it.”

“And was there?”

“Her story is basically an urban myth, but the boy I talked to knew it like the back of his hand. She was found dead in the forest. She hadn't frozen, even though it was winter. They never came up with an explanation. Her mother died a little while later, drank herself to death. But the girl talked to people who weren't there. It was just like all the others.”

“But why New Hampshire? There wasn't anyone in New York you could have talked to?”

Bianca swallowed again. “She was different.”

“You just said she was the same as all the others.”

She shook her head. “You know Thalia?”

“The girl Nico talks – talked to?”

Bianca nodded.

Hades blinked at her for a moment, looking confused, then understanding dawned on his face. “The girl in New Hampshire.”

Bianca nodded again. “Thalia Grace. 16 years old when she died.”

Hades rubbed his face. “That's not possible.”

“I don't want to believe it, but Nico met her when he was five. Where would he have heard of her before then?”

“So you think he's talking to a ghost?”

“I don't know. But it's not just hallucinations.” Bianca shut the laptop. “We just have to keep an eye on him, and don't let his friends come back.”

Hades looked down at the table. “I called Dr. Brunner.” When Bianca didn't answer, he continued. “He thinks that Nico might be a danger to himself. I saw the broken glass on his floor.” Bianca nodded. “We can't take care of him well enough here, Bianca.”

“You're sending him away?”

Hades nodded. “I have to. People there can take better care of him. They're professionals.”

Bianca stood up. “You can't!” she said, louder than she meant to.

“I'm sorry, Bianca, but I don't have a choice. He could have hurt himself. Badly.”

“Papa, one of the people who died killed herself after she was locked up in a mental institution. We have to keep him here.”

“There's no such thing as ghosts!” Hades yelled, standing up as well. “The only danger Nico is in is from himself. And we can't deal with that here.”

“So you're giving him to someone else? Making him their problem?”

“No!” In the dim light, Bianca could see tears on her father's face. “Do you think I want to send him away? I want to keep him here, I want him to be safe, but I don't know how!” He took a deep breath. “I'm sorry, Bianca, but it's the only way to keep him safe.”

Bianca shook her head. Half of her knew that her father was right, but at the same time she couldn't shake the feeling that something terrible was going to happen if she let him go to that hospital. But her father was right. There was no such thing as ghosts. All of this was probably just a coincidence.

Too bad she didn't believe in those, either.

“Fine,” she whispered. She picked up her laptop.

“Don't think you're getting out of punishment,” Hades called after her.

She slammed the door in answer.

* * *

“Where should I put this?” Bianca asked, holding up one of Nico's Green Day posters.

Nico looked up, as if he'd been broken out of a trance. He shrugged. “Wherever.”

Bianca sighed. “Come on, Nico, it's not so bad.”

“Not so bad?” Nico uncrossed his arms and took a step closer. “Papa's locking me up in a crazy house!”

“Psychiatric hospital,” Bianca corrected.

“My friends are gone anyway,” Nico continued, ignoring his sister. “Why do I have to be here if I’m not even crazy anymore?”

Bianca dropped the poster and walked forward. She grabbed Nico's hands and held them up, showing him the white bandages and ignoring his winces. “This is why, Nico. Because you hurt yourself.”

“I won't do it again! I just…” Tears were running down Nico's face as he searched for the right way to say what he wanted to say.

Bianca wrapped her arms around her little brother. “I know,” she whispered. “I don't want you to be here. I tried to talk him out of it, but you know how he can be. I’m sorry.” She leaned back and smiled. “But you'll be better soon, and then you can come home. Okay?”

Nico nodded and wiped his face. “Okay.”

She kissed his forehead. “I love you. Now where do you want the poster?”

“Above the bed.”

Bianca pulled the tape out of her back pocket and stuck the poster to the wall. Then she looked around. They'd put a few posters up, taped of course, since they weren't allowed to have staples – no sharp objects allowed, apparently there was concern that Nico might try to cut himself or something if they gave him staples. Which was ridiculous, but Bianca was trying her best not to argue.

They'd been allowed to bring a few of Nico's books, and even the round rug from his room at home. But the walls were whiter than white and so was the ceiling, and they didn't have the stick-on stars that Nico had at home. He didn't think he'd ever get used to it.

“Well, this looks better,” Hades said from the doorway. He'd just finished filling out all the paperwork. He smiled at Nico, who looked away.

Hades sighed. “I know you don't want to be here…” he began, but Nico cut him off.

“Don't bother, Papa.”

Hades walked across the small room towards Nico. He wrapped his son in a hug. “I'm sorry, Arachidi,” he whispered in Nico's ear, “but this is best for you. I promise.”

Nico nodded and sniffed hard, trying to keep from crying. He was fifteen, he wasn't about to sob into his father's shoulder like a toddler. Hades rubbed his back, and whispered soothing Italian words into his ear.

“Mr. di Angelo?” came a voice from the door, and Nico lifted his head from his father's shoulder to see a doctor standing there. He looked Asian, but not completely, as if one of his parents had been Asian and the other hadn't. “I'm Dr. Moon.” He smiled and held out a hand for Nico to shake. When Nico didn't take it, he cleared his throat and continued. “I'm sorry, but visiting hours are almost over.” He glanced up at Hades. “You and your wife will have to leave now, sir.”

Bianca coughed, and Hades turned bright red. “I'm his daughter,” Bianca clarified. “I'm seventeen.” Nico bit his lip to keep from laughing.

Dr. Moon smiled. “I'm sorry, you look much older. But you do have to leave.”

They nodded, and Bianca gave Nico another hug. “It'll be okay,” she promised.

After they'd left, Dr. Moon turned to Nico. “It's nice to meet you, Nico. You don't have a roommate right now, but maybe soon we can get you one, okay?” Nico stared at him. “Dinner's at six, you'll hear the bell.” Dr. Moon cleared his throat awkwardly and followed Hades and Bianca, shutting the door behind him.

Standing in the middle of his new room, Nico allowed the tears to flow down his face.


	13. Old Glory

_Hey, little kid  
_ _Did you wake up late one day?  
_ _And you're not so young, but you're still dumb  
_ _And you're numb to your old glory  
_ _But now it's gone.  
_ – X-Kid _, Green Day_

“Hey, Neeks, you got any tape?”

Nico looked up and glared. “Don't call me Neeks.”

His new roommate, a pyromaniac named Leo, continued grinning. He never seemed to stop. “Do you have any tape?” he repeated.

“No,” Nico snapped, and went back to his book.

“Don't need to get touchy,” Leo said in a sort of sing-song voice and went back to whatever he was building. Leo liked to fiddle with things. He would build all sorts of strange contraptions, only to take them apart and start over. He had once spent their entire free time building and rebuilding a little metal mouse. He said that it helped him not want to make fires. Nico didn't care, as long as the room didn't burn down.

There was a knock on the door, and Nico and Leo both looked up to see an orderly accompanying Bianca. The orderly smiled and left, while Bianca walked into the room.

“Hey,” she said, to both boys.

Leo grinned. “Hey, Bianca. Your brother's an ass.”

Bianca had come around often enough that Leo knew her. It helped that he was the sort of person who people liked to talk to, with his elf-like features and his grin that never went away. Nico wasn't sure, but he thought that Leo might have a crush on his sister. Then again, it sometimes seemed like Leo had a crush on almost every girl he met.

“What did he do this time,” Bianca asked, rolling her eyes.

“I'm not an ass just because I don't have any tape.”

“But would you give me it if you did?”

Nico glared again and Bianca laughed. “Leo, mind if I borrow my brother?” she asked. Nico noticed the tenseness in her voice.

Leo shrugged. “Yeah, sure. Just go ahead and leave me.” He gave a dramatic sniff and pretended to wipe a tear from his eye.

“Come on, Nico, the lady said you could go for a walk with me.” Bianca waved him forward and headed out the door.

Nico marked his page and swung his legs out of bed to follow his sister. Her smile had fallen, she was stressed about something.

“What's up?” he asked in Italian as they walked down the hall.

She shook her head and kept walking until they'd gotten to one of the rooms used for private visitations. They weren't often used, except for people who wanted to talk without their roommates present. Like now.

She shut the door behind her and sat in one of the beanbag chairs.

“This is gonna sound crazy,” she began after Nico had sat down across from her, “but I wanted you to know.”

She pulled some papers out of the small bag Nico hadn't noticed her carrying.

“I looked up some stuff about childhood hallucinations a little while ago, and I…I found…here.” She handed him the papers.

He took them and looked at the top one. It was a picture of a young boy and an article. “That boy talked to people who weren't there. They showed up at a young age, and they were his friends, and then…” she swallowed. “Then he died.”

Nico's head snapped up. “Why are you telling me this?” he asked in a quiet voice.

“I thought you should know. There are more of them. Girls and boys, they talk to their 'friends',” she lifted her hands to make quotations, “and then after a few years they die.”

“How?”

“Some kill themselves, but some just stop breathing.”

Nico looked back down at the picture. The boy was the same age as him. “You think I’m the same.”

“I'm worried, Nico.” She reached forward to take his hand and he let her. “I don't want you to die.”

He set the pile of papers on the ground. “And you think that because a few people died after talking to invisible people, I’m going to die too?”

“Not invisible, Nico! Imaginary! Not real!”

“They are!” he argued. “They're real! You just can't see them!”

“Then where are they?” she demanded

He didn't answer.

“They're gone, Nico. And maybe that's a good thing, but maybe it's just the next step. Look.” She rifled through the pile of papers and pulled out one of them. “This girl was admitted to an asylum, just like you.”

“I thought this was a psychiatric hospital.”

“It is. You'll get out. You don't get out of an asylum. But that's not the point!” She threw the paper onto the floor. “That girl killed herself. She said her friends had gone. I’m telling you so that you'll know! And if they try to come back, don't let them!”

“They don't want to hurt me, Bianca!” Nico stood up. “They're my friends. I know they are. And they're real, too!”

Bianca stood up, too, her black eyes flashing. “If they were really your friends, then they wouldn't have left you. Whether they're real or not, friends don't abandon each other like that.”

Nico shook his head. “You're wrong.”

“What were their names?” Bianca demanded suddenly.

He looked up at her. “What?”

“What. Were. Their. Names?”

He blinked. “Thalia, Percy, and Annabeth. I've told you that before.”

“Look at the bottom of the pile.” Bianca pointed at the pile of papers at their feet.

Nico eyed her warily, but he leaned down and pulled the last paper out from under the others. He stood back up. His heart stopped when he saw the picture and the name.

“That's her, isn't it?”

He nodded slowly. “That's not…that's not possible.”

“That's what I said,” Bianca agreed. “She's dead, but you're still talking to her. That's not possible. But it's happening. Or it was.”

Nico stared at the paper for a moment longer, before saying, “Can I keep this?”

Bianca nodded and wrapped her arms around her little brother. “I'm sorry,” she said. “But you'll be okay. Promise.”

Nico stepped back out of her embrace. “I think you should go now,” he said quietly.

Bianca sighed, but nodded again.

She took his hand and led him back down the hall to his room, kissing both his cheeks outside the door.

“What'd she want?” Leo asked, still lying on the bed fiddling.

Nico didn't answer, just lay down on his bed with his back to his roommate.

Now that he thought about it, Thalia could easily be dead. It made sense really. He'd heard stories about little kids making friends with ghosts. It just meant that he hadn't grown out of it. Annabeth and Percy were probably ghosts, too.

Except that they'd grown up with him. When he'd met them, they'd been five or six. The last time he'd seen them, they'd been fifteen or sixteen. Ghosts didn't age. And the article said that Thalia had been sixteen when she'd died. So she couldn't be a ghost.

But Nico had watched enough TV and read enough books to know about demons. There were all sorts of different demons, and they did all sorts of different things.

So why not one that took the faces of dead people?

* * *

Bianca dropped her bag on her bed and immediately went for her laptop. She had work to do.

She'd meant for that meeting to go much differently from the way it had, but she'd gotten her point across and Nico hadn't screamed at her – he'd come close, but he hadn't actually done it – so she called that a success.

She shoved the bag to the other side of the bed and sat down, pushing the power button. When it had booted up she opened Google and her fingers hovered over the keys.

It occurred to her that she couldn't remember their last names. Nico had told her a few times, but she couldn't remember.

She breathed out sharply. What now? She couldn't very well search a boy named Percy, could she? There were millions of people in the world named Percy.

But there probably weren't nearly as many who were delusional and haddied.

Bianca entered _Percy childhood hallucinations_. The search drew a blank. Apparently there was a doctor named Percy who did a lot of research on childhood hallucinations. That wasn't going to get her anywhere.

She lay back, staring up at the ceiling. She didn't know what else to do. Without a last name, her options were limited.

Suddenly, Bianca sat bolt upright. She couldn't get anything from the internet, but maybe someone else could help her.

She pulled out her phone and scrolled through her contacts until she found the right one and pressed send.

“Hullo?”

“Nigel! It's Bianca. We met about a week ago, you showed me Thalia Grace's grave.” Bianca crossed her fingers, hoping he'd remember.

There was a chuckle on the other end and a shuffling sound. “Yeah, I r'member. What d'you need?”

Bianca rubbed her forehead. “I uh, I just needed to know…I don't know if you'll know, but I was wondering if you knew of anyone else like Thalia.”

“What d'you mean?”

“Like…someone who died like her? Or, I don't know, talked to people who weren't there like she did.”

“Uh,” Nigel paused.

“Percy or Annabeth?”

“I d'know a Percy or'n Annabeth. But there's a version o' the story 'at says Thalia talked t'a guy name' Luke. An' I looked a' the recor's once, there 'uz a guy name' Luke who died a couple years b'fore Thalia. Castellan, Luke Castellan. I d'know if 'at helps.”

“Did he talk to people who weren't there, too?”

“Don't think so. If 'e did than there 'ud be a story 'bout 'im, too.”

She sighed. “Thanks, Nigel.”

“Yer comim back to visi' soo', right?”

Bianca smiled. “Yeah. It's just, I have some family problems right now, but I'll be back as soon as possible.” She actually missed Merin, despite the fact that she'd spent less than twenty-four hours there. It was much quieter there, and she'd have liked to see Nigel again.

“Wha' kin'a family prob'ms?” He paused. “You don' halfta answer that.”

“It's nothing, don't worry. Thanks again for your help.”

“N'kay, Bianca. G'night.”

“Night, Nigel.”

She pressed the end button. Then she pulled the laptop closer and typed _Luke Castellan_ into Google.

There wasn't much, but there was one page that listed deaths in New Hampshire in the 19th century. Luke Castellan was on it. Sixteen years old, like Thalia. Drowned in a local lake. His father was gone, and his mother had been locked up in an asylum a few years before. Suicide hadn't been ruled out, but there hadn't really been an investigation. It didn't seem to have mattered much.

There was no mention of Luke Castellan talking to people who weren't there. It was possible that he'd been dead before he'd been put in the lake, but whoever had inspected him had confirmed that it was drowning that had killed him.

He was normal.

Bianca frowned, and went back to the Google homescreen.

Jackson. That's what Nico had called him. Percy Jackson. She couldn't remember Annabeth's last name, but she had Percy's. She typed it into Google.

There were pages and pages of results, and one of them was even a link to Wikipedia with a list of people named Percy Jackson, but none of them were about a boy like the other people she'd found.

There was a dead boy, though. Percy Jackson, in 1903. He was eighteen, just graduated high school (which was an achievement at the time), a champion swimmer. There were pictures of him with trophies and medals. But he hadn't been crazy, he hadn't talked to anyone who wasn't there. And he'd died from pneumonia.

He was normal, too.

But it didn't make sense. Nico had been talking to a boy named Percy Jackson, and she was sure that was the right name. And Thalia had talked to Luke Castellan, Nigel had seemed certain about that. But both boys were completely normal. Something wasn't right.

Maybe she needed to rethink her conclusions.

 


	14. The Lost Ones

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own Nemo by Nightwish. Mrs. Shelley is an original character.

**Chapter 14 –** **The Lost Ones**

_This is me for forever  
_ _One of the lost ones  
_ _The one without a name  
_ _Without an honest heart as compass  
_ _This is me for forever  
_ _One without a name  
_ _These lines the last endeavor  
_ _To find the missing lifeline  
_ – Nemo ,  __ Nightwish

The room was dark, but light shone through the small window in the door. The electric light in the hallway hummed. Leo snored in the bed next to Nico's.

The hospital had a rule that all lights should be out at ten o'clock at night, and couldn't be turned on again until seven in the morning. Breakfast was at seven-thirty, and they should all be dressed for it. As much as he hated nighttime, he hated the other times more. At least nighttime was quiet.

Sometimes people had nightmares, and he heard that. Leo insisted that a lot of the screaming that they heard came from the locked ward, but Nico thought that was ridiculous. The locked ward was across the hospital. It was where the really crazy people went.

Nico sighed and rolled over in bed. He'd had trouble sleeping since he'd gotten there, but he never told his counselor. He had to see her every day for one-on-one therapy, and then a different one for group therapy twice a day, once in the morning and once at night. There was also recreational therapy, when he spent time with other people and was observed. It was to see how they were making progress socially. Nico hated it. He never did well.

He closed his eyes. Maybe he could get some sleep.

“Nico.”

His eyes flew open and he sat up straight. He knew that voice.

Thalia was standing at the foot of his bed.

She smiled at him. “Hey,” she said. She looked the same as she had the last time he'd seen her. “Nice place you've got here.”

Nico glared at her. How dare she just come in here like that, after what she'd done, after what she'd put him through. “Where the hell have you been?” he demanded.

She sighed. “I'm sorry, Nico…”

“I don't care how damn sorry you are, where did you go?” His accent was slipping through, as it sometimes did when he got frustrated.

Thalia sat down at the end of his bed and glanced over at Leo. “Is he always this loud?”

Nico's glare didn't falter. “Thalia.”

“Alright, alright.”

“Don't alright me, Thalia, you can't just leave without telling me, and then show up and expect everything to be okay.”

“Shh!” Thalia hissed.

Nico kept glaring, but he quieted down. He wasn't alone, and while nothing short of a nuclear bomb could wake Leo, the hall monitor was awake already. And it was Tuesday, so their floor had Mrs. Shelley. She was an absolute nightmare.

“Look, I'm sorry we left. But we had to check.”

“Check what?”

“You. We had to see what would happen if we left.”

Nico snorted softly. “And did I pass?”

“You're in a mental institution, Nico.”

“Psychiatric hospital.”

“Whichever. You didn't pass.”

Ah, how he'd missed her bluntness.

“So what does that mean? Now you have to come back and train me again? Look how well that went last time.”

Thalia sighed. “It's not training, Nico. We take care of you until you can stand on your own.”

“What are you, anyway?”

She bit her lip and rubbed the back of her head. Her gaze dropped to focus on the floor, then she tilted her head back to look at the ceiling, before finally facing him again. “Humans have a lot of names for us. The Vikings called us Valkyries, ancient Mesopotamians called us the Lamassu, Buddhists call us…” She crinkled up her nose as she tried to pronounce the word. “Bo…bodis…”

“Annabeth?”

Thalia chuckled. “Yeah. She was all over it when she got turned.”

“What do you mean 'turned'?”

She began playing with her fingers. “It's hard to explain. Basically, we look for people who need our help, and then we help them until they can stand on their own.”

“Like guardian angels?”

“Exactly.”

Nico rubbed his forehead. “But you were a real person.”

“How did you…?”

“Bianca.” He sighed. “She showed me a bunch of articles about kids who'd started talking to people who weren't there, and then they died. You were one of them.”

Thalia looked down at her hands. “Yeah. I was real.” She looked up at the wall and cocked her head. “Well, I still am real. But I was _alive_.”

“Until you froze to death?”

She shook her head and looked at him. “No. That's the complicated bit.”

“ _That's_ the complicated bit? What about all the other bits?”

Thalia waved her hand in the air, as if brushing away his question. “See, we're supposed to hang around until we think our person can survive without us. Most of the time they can, but sometimes we misjudge it and we leave before they're ready. Then we come back and help them again. Some of the people you read about killed themselves, right?” He nodded. “Those were the ones who weren't ready, but their…their _guardian_ didn't come back in time.”

“And I wasn't ready.”

“No. Sorry about that.”

He shrugged. Somehow it seemed less important now. “So it's not always you?”

She shook her head. “No. There were more before me.”

“And Percy and Annabeth?”

Thalia smirked. “I was there for both of them.”

“You were?”

“Yeah. They were around the same time, too. I think Percy started in 1890 or so. And Annabeth was in the early 1930s. She was one of Percy's first assignments.”

Nico blinked. Then he moaned softly and rubbed his temples. This was a little too much to take in all at once.

Thalia laughed. “I know. It's a lot. Do you want me to keep going?”

He groaned. “There's more?”

“Not much. But yeah.”

Nico sighed. “Go ahead.”

“Okay. Well, Annabeth was like you and me…we left her, and then she couldn't handle it. She didn't kill herself, though. We took her away.”

“ _Took her away_?”

“We got to her in time, but she didn't want to stay. She wanted to come back with us. I think it had something to do with Percy. They were in love with each other from the beginning.”

The two of them laughed.

“So what, you just took her away?” Nico asked.

Thalia nodded. “Basically.”

Nico rubbed his forehead. “Okay.”

“Percy was different, though. We judged right with him, and he was okay when we left. He was pretty easy, though, there was this whole thing with his step father, and then the step father left and everything was mostly okay again. Anyway, he died a few years after that, just by accident, and he decided to join us.”

“And you can do that? Just join?”

“Usually it's kids who've needed us, but yeah.”

Nico lay back on his pillows, facing the ceiling.

“I'm really sorry we left, Nico,” Thalia said.

He nodded the best he could with his head on a pillow. “I know. It's okay.”

That wasn't exactly the biggest problem he was having right now.

“Wait,” he sat up again, “You killed Annabeth?”

Thalia sighed. “Not exactly. More like…we took her.”

“You kidnapped Annabeth?”

“No.” She rubbed a hand down her face. “No, we…she wanted to come with us. It's sort of like suicide, except different.”

Nico stared at her. “Do you realize how much sense that doesn't make?”

Thalia chuckled. “She wanted to die. We just helped her.”

“That's depressing.”

“Yeah.”

Leo snorted and rolled over in his sleep, and they both froze, staring at him. After a moment he settled and began snoring softly again. But they still didn't say anything.

“It's a possibility, you know. For you.” Thalia broke the silence.

“What is?”

She took a deep breath. “You could come with me.”

“Like Annabeth did?”

“Yeah.”

Nico's eyes widened. Thalia was asking him to die? For her? Or was it for himself? Maybe it was. Maybe…

“No.”

He hadn't thought about saying anything, and for a moment he didn't even realize it was him who had spoken.

Thalia sighed. “Alright.”

Silence.

“Why do you want me to?”

She shrugged. “I don't know. I think you'd like it. We live forever. And we travel all over the world.” She smiled. “You could go back to Italy.”

“And watch Bianca and Papa die.”

“That too. I didn't have any family I cared about, really.”

“Did Annabeth?”

Thalia nodded. “She had two brothers. She cared about them a lot. I guess she just cared about us more.”

Nico didn't answer, and after a few minutes of listening to Leo snore Thalia told him she had to leave, but promised that she would be coming back. She patted his shoulder before walking out the door. She never disappeared in front of him.

 _She just cared about us more_. That was it, wasn't it? He had to decide who he cared about more. His family was everything to him, but Thalia, Percy and Annabeth were part of his family, too. And he got the feeling that he wouldn't be able to see them again if he refused.

He thought of Bianca. He couldn't just leave her, could he? Or his father. They'd both already lost his mother. What would happen if they lost him, too?

But he couldn't lose Thalia, not again.

_ She cared about them a lot. I guess she just care about us more. _

 


	15. All That is Keeping Me Here

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own Stairway to the Skies by Within Temptation. Lily Rose and Daystar Psychiatric Hospital are original places.

_Seven seconds to the rise_ _ **  
**_ _Can't believe I'm still alive_ _ **  
**_ _And Heaven was waiting for me_ _ **  
**_ _I thought this would be the end_ _ **  
**_ _But I know you'll understand_ _ **  
**_ _All that is keeping me here_ _ **  
  
**_ _I dream of a stairway to the skies_ _ **  
**_ _My angel is coming down from Heaven to take me_ _ **  
**_ _I reach out but then you fade away_ _ **  
**_ _Whenever you call for me_ _ **  
**_ _Know that I'm only one step behind  
_ – Stairway to the Skies _, Within Temptation_

“Hi, what can I get you?”

Bianca glanced up at the menu, even though she didn't need to. She knew it like the back of her hand. “Two medium hot chocolates, one peppermint and one hazelnut, a large mocha, a chocolate chip muffin, and two maple scones. Please.”

The cashier nodded and tapped the screen in front of her a few times.

“What does a maple bacon hot chocolate taste like?” Bianca asked. It was new on the menu.

The cashier laughed. “I couldn't tell you. Honestly, I’m a little too afraid to try it.”

Bianca wrinkled her nose. “Why would you put bacon in a hot chocolate?”

“I don't know.” The cashier looked up from the screen and smiled. “Is that all?” When Bianca nodded she asked, “For here or to go?”

“To go.”

A moment later a bag of pastries and a tray with two steaming cups was placed on the counter. Bianca smiled and thanked the cashier before leaving the small coffee shop, _Lily Rose_. It wasn't well known, and people didn't go there very often. The owner had mostly forgotten about it, he owned quite a few coffee shops across the country, as well as running several other businesses. But he had more money than he could ever possibly use, and _Lily Rose_ didn't take up that much, so he left it running.

Bianca put the bag in the front passenger seat and started the car. The heater turned on – thank God, it was freezing – and the radio began playing bad pop music. Bianca grimaced and began flipping through the stations, trying to find a good one. Eventually she gave up and turned off the radio.

The story of Percy Jackson was still bothering her. Everything had added up, until that one story. There had been nothing wrong with him. Really nothing, she was beginning to wonder if he was really a real person. She'd checked every story about him she could find, he seemed perfect. No arrests, no detentions (did they have detentions at that time?), nothing except the sickness that had killed him. And that was normal, too – pneumonia was one of the most common diseases at the beginning of the 20th century.

So why was Nico talking to him?

Some of the earlier websites Bianca had looked at talked about imaginary friends really being ghosts, and she'd even found some pretty convincing reports of people who'd had ghosts as friends or whose children had had ghosts as friends. Maybe Nico was just talking to dead people, and one of them happened to be someone who'd talked to people who weren't there, and then died in a mysterious way.

But Bianca didn't believe in coincidences.

She pulled up in front of the Daystar Psychiatric Hospital and made her way inside. At the reception desk, she held up her bag of pastries, and allowed them to check it. Then she was led inside and down a hallway she'd walked too many times before to her little brother's room.

“Hey Bianca!” Leo said from his bed. It was afternoon, so they were allowed free time until their one-on-one sessions.

Bianca smiled. “Hey, Leo.”

“'S'at for me?”

“Stop mooching off of my sister, Valdez,” Nico grumbled.

Bianca turned to look at her brother. “Nico, why are you lying on the floor?”

“He says it helps him think,” Leo replied, rolling his eyes.

Nico glared but didn't say anything.

Bianca turned back to Leo. “I have a peppermint hot chocolate and a chocolate chip muffin with your name on it, Leo.”

Leo grinned and reached up to take the offered refreshments. “Gracias, mi reina.”

“Prego.”

Leo scrunched up his nose. “What?”

“She said 'you're welcome', culo.”

“I don't know what that means, either.”

“And we're not going to tell you,” Bianca interjected, and shot her brother a pointed look. “Nico, hazelnut hot chocolate and maple scone.”

Nico sat up against his bed and took his drink and scone. “Grazie,” he mumbled.

Bianca smiled and sat down on Nico's bed with her own food. “So how's it going?”

“Your brother says some weird things in his sleep,” Leo said through a mouthful of muffin. He swallowed, and then continued. “He was talking about killing someone, and then kidnapping. I wasn't really listening. It was a girl's name. Annabelle, maybe?” He scrunched up his nose again as he thought.

Annabeth. Bianca looked at her brother, who had stopped eating. He was staring at the wall across from him.

After a moment he said, “Weird,” and continued eating.

Bianca chatted with Leo while her brother insisted on being his sullen little self and sat on the floor alone. After they'd finished, she said, “Leo, I hate to leave, but I really need to steal my brother.”

Leo shrugged and pulled out the silly puddy that Bianca had given him for his birthday. “That's fine.”

She stood up and hauled her brother up with her. They walked out the door and down the hall to the visiting room.

“I found something out about Percy,” Bianca began.

“Bianca,” Nico interrupted. She closed her mouth and looked at him. “They came back.”

She blinked, her heart sinking. “They did.” It wasn't a question.

He nodded. “Last night. It was just Thalia. She explained everything.”

“Really?” Her voice was hard. “I'd like to hear this.”

Nico took a deep breath, and sat down on the beanbag. “She said they're like guardian angels. They were helping me. 'Cause Mama was dead and I was having trouble making friends. They left so they could tell if I still needed them.”

“And they think you do?”

God, why was she talking like this? Like they were real?

Because as much as she hated it, she believed that they were.

He nodded.

“I looked up Percy. He didn't die like the rest of them.”

“I know.”

“You do?”

“Thalia told me. Fever. The people you found online, they were the bad ones, the ones that didn't pass. Percy did. They helped him when he was a kid, and then he didn't need them anymore. He died of a fever, but it was just a coincidence. Then he joined them.”

“It was pneumonia.”

Nico rolled his eyes. “Whichever. The point is, not everyone died the way you found.”

On the inside, Bianca was cheering. Dancing. Throwing a party. Her brother might not die.

One the outside, she asked, “Are they here now?”

He shook his head. “But…” his face pinched, “there's something else.”

“What?”

Nico looked down at his hands. He didn't want to tell her.

“Nico, what's wrong?”

“She wants me to go with her,” he whispered.

Bianca froze. “Die, you mean.”

He nodded without looking up.

She swallowed and sat down. Part of her was screaming to stop, this was ridiculous, there was no such thing as ghosts. Nico couldn't be talking to dead people, it wasn't possible. But there was no denying that what he'd just said about Percy was true. And he didn't have any access to computers. He couldn't have looked it up.

Another part of her was frozen in shock and fear. She was terrified, terrified of the people her brother was talking to, terrified of what they were saying, terrified that he might listen. He might do what they said. He might leave her, like their mother had.

The smallest part was saying, whispering, that maybe they were right. There was nothing for Nico here. The only thing this world ever did was hurt him. Maybe he deserved to leave.

“Do you want to?” she heard herself ask, without even meaning to.

He glanced up at her. “I don't know,” he whispered. “I don't want to leave you, or Papa, or Leo, but…” a tear rolled down his face and his voice got quiet, “it…it hurts.”

“What does?”

“Everything. I can't…they can't come back now.”

And he couldn't live without them. He didn't know how. She could see that. He needed them, or he'd go insane.

That was what had happened to the girl in Los Angeles. She'd lost her…guardian angels, or whatever they were, and she couldn't handle it.

Bianca leaned forward and kissed her brother head, fighting the tears that were threatening to fall. “Just do what you think is right, Arachidi,” she whispered.


	16. Live and Let Die

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own 21 Guns by Green Day. Doctor Costa is an original character. Daystar Psychiatric is an original place.

_When it's time to live and let die  
_ _And you can't get another try  
_ _Something inside this heart has died  
_ _You're in ruins  
_ – 21 Guns _, Green Day_

Nico hated the dark. When he'd been little he'd loved it, but lately it was freaking him out more than usual. He wasn't sure what had changed. He thought it might have been his friends leaving.

And they'd come back now, but they'd be leaving him again. And that was what scared him the most. More than the dark, more than the cafeteria food, more than the idea of Leo's mechanical  _ things _ coming for him while he slept (paranoia and an over-active imagination didn't mix well for Nico).

After Bianca had left, Nico had thought about what she'd said, and what Thalia had said. He hadn't felt like talking to his councilor during his one-on-one time, and or during group, so he'd sat there and thought some more. During dinner, while Leo chatted into his ear about something that someone had said, Nico had contemplated his options. Now, at one o'clock the next morning, he'd made a decision.

He took a deep breath. He wasn't sure how to call for Thalia. She'd always just been there when he needed her. When she wasn't there, he just went about his business until she came back. But he knew she wouldn't just come back now. She'd give him the time he needed to think. So he had to get her back himself.

“Thalia,” he whispered into the darkness.

Nothing happened.

He wasn't sure what he'd expected. She'd never just appeared in front of his eyes. It was one reason why she'd appeared so normal to him. She would come from behind him, or beside him, or she'd be there when he woke up in the morning. So it was unlikely that she would appear on the bed when he called.

He threw back the covers and stood up, flinching when his feet touched the cold floor. He turned to stare at his bed. Shutting his eyes, he whispered Thalia's name again.

Still nothing.

Nico sighed and opened his eyes. Then he closed them again, held out his hands over the bed, and, concentrating (he'd seen this in some movie or another), he hissed her name as loud as he dared.

There was silence. Then, in the corner, he heard laughing. He opened his eyes and turned around to see Thalia standing there with her hand over her mouth, trying to stifle her giggles and doing a terrible job. “That was the funniest thing I've ever seen. You looked like you were trying to summon the dead or something.”

Nico rolled his eyes and sat back down on the bed, while Thalia came closer. “So what did you want?” she asked.

He took a deep breath, twisting his fingers together. “I want to go with you.”

The grin slid off of Thalia's face. “Are you sure?” she asked quietly. “You can't change your mind after this.”

“I know. I want to.”

“You have a lot of life left to live, Nico.”

“What life? You guys are my life. If you're leaving, then I'm leaving too.”

Thalia looked down at her hands. “When I…left, I wasn't thinking straight. I was afraid. My mother, the people in the town, they frightened me. Luke offered another life, one that I thought would be better, and I took it without thinking.”

Nico blinked. “Did you know you kinda talk like you're from the old days?”

“I am from the old days. 19 th century, remember?”

“Right.”

“Nico, I don't want you to make the same mistake I did.”

“Do you regret it?”

Thalia looked up at him. She stared at him for a few seconds, then shook her head. “No. But I wouldn't have regretted it if I'd waited a while, either.”

“How do you know? You could have gone crazy. Like I did.”

She smiled, but it was sad. “I didn't have the chance. I died before they could leave me.”

Nico sighed. Thalia was his best friend (which was weird because she was dead, but he ignored that), but she was impossible to argue with. “I'm going with you. What am I supposed to do without you?”

“Be normal. Go to school, make real friends. The things regular kids do.”

“I'm not a regular kid!” His voice had risen, and Thalia shushed him. “And I thought that's what the whole leaving me thing was about. Seeing if I could make it on my own. And I can't.”

Thalia stood up and began to pace.

“Please, Thalia.”

It was the tone of his voice that broke her. He sounded desperate. She'd never heard him sound like that before.

She turned back to him with a sigh and nodded. Then she smiled. As much as she wanted him to have a normal life, she didn't want to have to leave him, either. She cared about him. It was the same with so many of her charges. She always wanted them to be okay, but at the same time she wanted them to not be okay so that she wouldn't have to leave them. Unfortunately, she was very good at her job. They didn't often go with her.

Thalia held out her hand. “Relax,” she said softly. “It might be a bit scary at first. But it'll be okay. Just relax.”

Nico swallowed, nodded, and took her hand.

* * *

Nico talked in his sleep, and it drove Leo up the damn wall. Especially when he started yelling at people. He didn't do it very loudly, but it was loud enough to keep Leo awake.

Leo didn't even know why Nico was there. He'd never asked, and Nico didn't speak unless spoken to, and even when he was spoken to he didn't always answer. Sometimes, when he couldn't sleep or when he was bored (during group, for example, when they wouldn't let him fiddle), he would try to guess. So far the best he'd come up with was that Nico was a sociopath who had murdered his family, except Bianca, because she'd secretly helped him, but she was so nice and pretty they didn't think she could have done it. Or possibly he was just depressed. Leo preferred the first.

But at night he wondered if Nico was an insomniac, or if he was there for nightmares or something, because he would wake Leo up with his mumbles and whispered shouts.

Tonight was different, though, because Nico sounded desperate. He was begging someone, presumably the same person he usually talked to, to let him go with them. Leo wasn't sure what he meant, but he didn't turn over. He had almost fallen asleep when he heard choking.

He rolled over and saw Nico sitting up straight on his bed, one hand on his knee holding what looked like air, and the other clenching the sheets, but neither at his throat. He was coughing and wheezing, like he couldn't breathe.

“Nico,” Leo said, throwing back the covers and scrambling to his roommate's bed. In the dim light from the hallway, Leo could see that Nico's face was slowly draining of color. He didn't have time to think how odd it was. Usually people's faces turned purple when he didn't have oxygen. At least from what he'd heard.

Leo began pounding his friend on the back, but before he'd gotten to five he felt something on his shoulder, and a moment later he was sprawled half on the ground between their beds and half on his own bed. Nico was still choking, the hand gripping the sheet going white as he squeezed harder.

Leo looked up, and for a moment he saw a flash of electric blue, bright against the dark wall. He could have sworn they were a pair of eyes. But he shook his head, stood up, and ran to the door. “Help!” he screamed, banging on the door, which was locked from the outside. It was to make sure the patients didn't escape. At the end of the hallway was a button that would unlock all the doors at once, in case of emergency.

His blood went cold when he realized that Nico had gone silent. He turned around and looked at his roommate. Nico lay flat on his back, his legs folded from when he'd been sitting Indian style. He was staring up at the ceiling. Leo slowly made his way towards Nico's bed. Nico's eyes were glassy, and his normally olive skin was pale. His hands had come unclenched. There was a smile on his face.

The door burst open, and three doctors ran in. One of them took Leo and led him out of the room into the hallway, while the other two busied themselves around Nico's bed.

The doctor who had brought Leo into the hallway took Leo's face in her hands and made him look at her. He watched her lips moving, but he couldn't hear her. Nico's smiling face was seared into his mind.

* * *

“Hades di Angelo.”

“Mr. di Angelo, this is Doctor Costa from Daystar Psychiatric.”

“Is Nico alright?”

A pause.

“Are you sitting down, Mr. di Angelo?”

“Yes. Why?”

“I'm very sorry to have to tell you this, Mr. di Angelo, but your son was found dead by his roommate last night.”

Another pause.

“How did he die?”

“We don't know. It seems like heart failure.”

Static over the phone.

“Heart failure?”

“It's a possibility. His roommate says that he choked, but we haven't found any evidence of that. We haven't found evidence of heart failure, either. We haven't found evidence of anything, really.”

“His heart just stopped.”

“That's what it seems like, yes.”

“Oh.”

“I'm very sorry for your loss, Mr. di Angelo.”

"What does his roommate think he choked on?"

"He doesn't know. And like I said, we found nothing. Would you like to come see your son?"

“Yes. Thank you.”

“Good bye, Mr. di Angelo. Again, I'm so sorry.”

“Good bye.”

* * *

Bianca heaved a sigh of relief as she swung her backpack down onto the table. It was the end of a long day. She had a paper due tomorrow, and a poster due the day after, and a test next week. But first, Nico.

She'd taken to visiting him every day. As much as he pretended to hate her visits, she could tell that he missed her as much as she missed him. She wanted him to come home. She wanted to see him in his normal black jeans and t-shirts, with one earbud permanently jammed into his ear and the other dangling against his side. She wanted her little brother back.

She had just picked up her cellphone, wallet and keys when her phone vibrated. She looked down.  _ Papa _ was flashing across the screen.

“Pronto?” she said.

“Bianca.” Her father's voice sounded hoarse. “Where are you?”

“I was about to go visit Nico. Why?” she asked in Italian.

There was a pause before Hades said, “Nico's dead.”

Bianca's heart stopped, and the temperature seemed to drop twenty degrees. She put a hand on the counter to steady herself. No, no, that wasn't possible, it couldn't have happened, she was so sure he wouldn't choose them, he was supposed to choose his family…

“What happened?” she asked.

“His heart stopped.”

“Just like that?”

“Just like that.”

Bianca felt like she was going to be sick.

“Okay,” she whispered.

“You can come down if you'd like. I don't know when I'll be home.”

“Okay,” she said again.

“I love you.”

“I love you, too.” She hung up.

She stared at the wall across from her. It was painted a dull silver. She could see the black scribbles from when Nico was young. He'd decided he didn't want the wall to be silver.

She threw the phone against the wall, where it shattered. Then she slid down the side of the kitchen counter and sat there, sobbing into her knees.

 


	17. The Truth Beneath the Rose

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mrs. Pagliaro and Miss Warner are both original characters.

_Give me strength to face the truth, the doubt within my soul  
No longer I can justify the bloodshed in his name  
Is it a sin to seek the truth, the truth beneath the rose?  
Pray with me so I will find the gate to Heaven's door  
_– The Truth Beneath the Rose, _Within Temptation_

It wasn't raining.

It was wrong, Bianca thought. It should have been raining. There were clouds in the sky, but it wasn't raining.

Then again, maybe that was okay. Maybe rain would have ruined it.

Bianca glanced around. The few ladies who were there were wearing thick makeup. It was ridiculous, and she wanted to laugh. But she didn't.

Rain would have ruined their makeup. They would have looked like sad clowns.

The coffin was black. It was open. Nico lay there, surrounded by white silk. His hands were folded on his stomach. On his right side was his favorite Within Temptation CD. On his left were his favorite Mythomagic figurines and cards – Zeus and Hades. The rest were in a box in Bianca's room. She couldn't bring herself to throw them away.

The roses were white. So was Bianca's dress. Despite Nico always wearing black, he'd been more cheerful than people had thought. The funeral would be too depressing with everyone wearing black. So Bianca had worn white.

In her hair was a blue headband. It was for Thalia. Whether she existed or not, she had at one time. Knowing the full story, Bianca felt guilty for not being able to attend Thalia's funeral, even if that was irrational because she wasn't alive then anyway. She got the feeling that there hadn't been a lot of people at Thalia's funeral. So she would honor the dead girl at this one. It felt fitting.

Her father stood next to her. His face was like marble – stoney and white. His eyes were darker than Bianca had ever seen them. They were filled with tears, but the tears wouldn't fall. He wouldn't let them.

Being a mortician, Hades had considered embalming his son himself. He'd almost done it, too. But when he saw Nico being rolled in on a metal table, covered with nothing but a sheet, Hades had known he couldn't. He'd asked his friend and coworker, Thanatos, to do it. He trusted Thanatos.

Bianca slipped a hand into her father's and listened as everyone there sang a funeral hymn.

* * *

“They'll be alright.”

Nico nodded, not taking his eyes off of his family.

“I know it's hard. But you have to let them go.”

“How?”

Thalia shook her head. “I don't know.”

“You've done it, though.”

“I don't remember. And your family is different from mine.”

“How?”

“They care.”

Nico turned to his best friend. He took her hand. “I'm sorry.”

She shrugged. “You care. Percy cares. Annabeth cares. That's enough for me.”

He turned back to the funeral. They were standing a good ten feet away, still able to hear everything.

“I wish there were more people,” he said thoughtfully.

Thalia chuckled. “I don't even recognize half of these people.”

“I think they work with my dad. I only met them a couple times.” He squinted, and pointed. “That's Mrs. Pagliaro. She was my English teacher last year. And Miss Warner, my social studies teacher.”

“Oh yeah, the ones who were gay for each other.”

Nico laughed, then quickly quieted before remembering that no one could hear him anyway. “Mrs. Pagliaro's married!”

“And?”

He rolled his eyes, still laughing. It felt strange to be laughing at a funeral. And it felt even stranger to be attending his own funeral.

“Look, Leo came,” Thalia said, pointing to where the Latino boy stood. An older woman, also Latino, stood next to him. Nico assumed it was his mother.

He nodded and looked back at his little family. Bianca was wearing white. She looked beautiful.

He wished he could say goodbye to them.

* * *

Bianca stepped forward to lay a rose on Nico's coffin. She'd been ambushed by wellwishers for the past half an hour since the funeral had been over, and she was ready for a moment alone with her brother. Well, what was left of him.

She leaned down to kiss his forehead. She could smell the oils they'd rubbed on him. Sometimes her father would come home smelling the same way.

Bianca didn't believe in praying. She liked science. She liked cold, hard fact. But over the past few weeks, everything she'd understood about the world had been questioned. Although she still didn't believe in prayer, perhaps talking to her brother wasn't a half bad idea.

“Hey, Nico,” she whispered. “Um…I don't really know what I'm supposed to be saying…” She chuckled and wiped a tear from her face. “I guess…just, I know you're probably with Thalia and Percy and Annabeth…so…have fun. I know you'll be happier with them. I guess you never really belonged here, huh? I think…” she didn't really know what she was saying, but this was something she'd been thinking for a while, “I think you were right. About everything. And…and they just didn't understand. All the doctors and psychiatrists and everyone, they thought you were crazy, but you weren't. So…I'm glad you're gone now, 'cause…'cause this world wasn't ready for you.”

She sniffed hard and wiped her eyes again.

Behind her, someone cleared their throat.

She turned to see an old man who she'd never met. What little hair he had left was stark white, and he walked with a cane. His eyes were gray and sparkling. He smiled. “I'm sorry to disturb you, but are you Bianca di Angelo?” His voice was strong, despite his feeble appearance.

Bianca nodded and smiled. As much as she didn't want to deal with any more wellwishers, she would put on a good face. Later, she would go home and collapse.

“My name is Mathew Chase. I heard about your brother and how he died. My sister died the same way a very long time ago. 1941. She was sixteen.”

“The same way?”

He nodded. “People don't understand how much more difficult it is to lose someone for no apparent reason.”

Bianca's smile became real. There was a reason, and she knew it. But she couldn't tell this man.

“What was your sister's name?” she asked.

“Annabeth.”

_Annabeth_ . That was one of the people Nico had talked to.

“Mr. Chase…”

“Mathew.”

“Mathew, this might seem like a weird question, but did your sister talk to people before she died? People who you couldn't see?”

Mathew smiled and glanced down at the grass for a moment. “Her imaginary friends. She loved them. They would follow us everywhere. Our mother got angry with her, but Annabeth refused to let them go.”

“What were their names?”

Mathew gave her a confused smile. “Why?” he asked, chuckling.

“I…I'm just curious.”

Mathew still looked confused, but he answered, “There were three of them. Percy, Thalia, and Luke.” His expression turned thoughtful. “Actually, Luke left after a while. Annabeth said he didn't like his job anymore.” He laughed. “Do you know when the last time I thought of them was?”

Bianca smiled. “Thank you, Mr. Chase. It was nice to meet you. I'm sorry about your sister.”

Mathew shook his head, leaning on his cane. “I think it was time for her to go. It was early, but it happens sometimes. My brother, too. I'm the last of us.” He sighed. “I'm very sorry for your loss, Miss di Angelo.”

“Thank you.”

He smiled. “I'm afraid I'll have to be going now. Old bones, you know.” He laughed, and she joined him. “Good bye.”

She shook his hand, and they parted ways.

* * *

The grass wasn't cold. It should have been cold. The air should have been cold, too. It was cloudy, the wind was blowing, and it should have been cold. But even though he was only wearing a pair of black skinny jeans and black t-shirt, Nico wasn't cold.

He knelt in front of his gravestone, tracing the letters.  _Nicollo Alessandro di Angelo_ , it read. Underneath was carved  _Riposa in Pace_ . That part he liked. It was comforting that his gravestone was in his native Italian, although he'd always hated his middle name.

Thalia knelt next to him. “Creepy, isn't it?” she asked.

He chuckled. “A little. Kinda cool, though.”

“I never liked mine. It just says my name.”

Nico turned to look at her. “We should go see it. We've got time, haven't we?”

She laughed. “All the time in the world.”

He sat back on his heels. She leaned forward and began sprinkling what looked like a gray powder on his grave.

“What's that?”

“Ashes.”

“Of what?”

“Feathers.”

Nico blinked, but didn't ask. She finished sprinkling and sat back.

“Our graves are marked by white roses. They're always there. It'll grow in a few days, and then it'll be impossible to get rid of. Even if it gets picked, it'll grow back. If you choose to leave us, then it will die.”

“We can do that? Choose to leave?”

She nodded without taking her eyes off of the grave, where the ashes had begun to sink into the ground. “It's not common, but you can.”

“What happens then?”

She shrugged. “You move on, I guess.”

* * *

Bianca wrapped her thin sweater around her. It was time to leave. Her father was just saying goodbye to the last of the guests, getting ready to go home and collapse on his bed, where Bianca knew he would sob his heart out. She would be in her own room, listening to Nico's music and playing with his Mythomagic and crying quietly. Then she would pull herself together, put on her own music (something fun, something she could dance to), and go into the kitchen to make dinner. When she'd finished she would bring it to her father. He wouldn't eat tonight if she didn't make him.

A breeze shook the tops of the trees above her. It still wasn't raining.

She turned her attention to her little brother's grave. And smiled.

Nico stood in front of the stone, watching her. He was holding hands with a girl about his own age. From her place a few yards away from the grave, Bianca could tell that the girl's eyes were blue, like they'd been electrocuted.

They were the same eyes she'd seen ten years ago in the park.

This was Thalia.

Nico was smiling, and it was more real than Bianca had seen in months, maybe even years. Thalia was smiling, too. They both raised their hands to wave, and Bianca waved back.

Nico glanced up, and Bianca followed his gaze. When she looked back, they were gone.

She felt a hand on her shoulder, and a moment later her father pulled her into a hug. They didn't speak, just stood there holding each other for longer than either cared to count.

When they'd pulled apart, Hades took his daughter's hand and they walked together towards the car.

Bianca opened her door, looked up, and smiled. It had begun to rain.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for sticking with this, I know updates were a little scarce. See you next time.  
>  \- Jez


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